Kingdom Hearts 3 Volume 1: Reawaken
by The Slow Doberman
Summary: The Gathering of the Unwilling. The Generation of Unity. The Gate of Uroboros. The Guardian Ubiquitos. A Guide to an Uprising. And diving into the chaos of it all, the Guardians of Light. What changes will these three Keybearers bring with them to The World? Set post-3D, and a few days before the events of the G.U. games begin. Will contain spoilers for GU, among others.
1. Prologue: Awakening

**Author's Notes: Here we go! My first story here on FF, and it's a crossover between Kingdom Hearts and .hack/G.U. Now, for those of you not in the know, dothack is a conglomerate of anime, manga, and games revolving around an MMORPG that is more than it seems called "The World". It's not for everyone, but I personally love it and the themes it presents, and would recommend it to a good many people; it did the whole "carry details from your previous save file over to the next game" before Mass Effect did! As for Kingdom Hearts...well, I'm sure we've all heard of this game, one way or another.**

**This story takes into account almost all of the details of previous Kingdom Hearts games. It takes place post-Dream Drop Distance, so there WILL be spoilers! You have been warned. In terms of G.U., it starts a few days before the six month timeskip after Shino was (spoiler!) PKed by Tri-Edge in-game and fell into a coma in the real world.**

**But enough prepositionary banter! Now we read like men! And ladies! And ladies who dress like men!**

**Disclaimer: This is a fanfic written by me. I don't own either Kingdom Hearts or the .hack Conglomerate, nor the characters and concepts presented within them. They're owned by Tetsuya Nomura and Square Enix, and Hiroshi Matsuyama, CyberConnect2, and Bandai Namco respectively. Please support the official releases.**

* * *

All was quiet at the headquarters of the CC Corporation this night. Everyone had gone home for the night, locking everything up. Not a soul could be seen or heard. Therefore, nobody would see the corridor of darkness that came from the floor of the main server room, nor the figure that stepped out from it.

The old man had wanted him to come here, to this specific world. It had a world within it, similar to the computer of Ansem the Wise in Radiant Garden. The figure didn't care about the rest of the details; just that he was to infiltrate this system and find something. The old man had found something that he wanted on this world, and the old man always got what he wanted, one way or another.

The figure walked up to the machine before him and pressed his hand against it. Concentrating, he opened another portal, this time into his true destination. He seemed to sink into the server itself. Within seconds, he was gone, as was the corridor he had used to arrive here. No one on this world had seen him.

On another world, far away from this world, an old man, garbed in blue and emanating an aura of power that commanded respect, opened his eyes. Turning to the black cloaked figure beside him, Yen Sid told him to summon the trio to his tower. With a nod, the redhead disappeared into a corridor of his own, off to fetch the ones who had been requested. Pulling out a quill and parchment, he began to write a letter to his former apprentice, detailing the events he had scryed.

* * *

He didn't understand what was going on. One minute, he'd been walking with her, enjoying being in her presence, and then the next he was...falling. No, not falling; sinking. How long had this involuntary dive been going on? Hours? Days? Years? Just when he thought he couldn't handle it anymore, his feet touched down in a familiar place; the outside of the Hulle Granz Cathedral.

As he took a step forward, the boy in dark armor felt a strong hand on his shoulder, keeping him from moving. Looking behind him, he saw a giant of a man, tattooed in the azure and emerald hues of the sea. He wore nothing but a leather loincloth, a long sword sheathed at his hip. Before he could complain, the giant spoke in a deep yet friendly voice. "What's most important to you?"

"Being number one," the boy answered after a moment, somewhat confused as to why he was being asked something like that by this stranger.

The large man frowned, a hand resting against his chin contemplatively. "Hmm, being number one? Is that really so important?" Before he could say another word, the giant disappeared from his sight, surrounded by golden rings of light.

Slightly annoyed, the boy turned around, heading towards the entrance of the cathedral. As he drew closer, the boy saw a figure in front of the entrance, a couple inches shorter than him. She was wearing more than the man had been wearing, but she still wasn't wearing very much; she wore what amounted to an armored magenta bra, one strap going over her shoulder and the other around her back. She had purple skintight leggings, and an armored cod piece the same shade as her top. Pink hair framed her dark-skinned face. On her back rested a zweihander, as big as she was. Before the boy could tell her to move out of his way, she spoke to him, posing another question. "What do you want outta life?"

He didn't hesitate when he spoke this time. "Power, to get what I want."

A frown marred the young woman's pretty face. "To be strong, huh? Does strength really matter that much?" Just like the large man earlier, she too disappeared in rings of light before the boy could chew her out.

Sufficiently annoyed, the boy entered the cathedral. A stained glass window shone light onto a statue of a girl, the statue wrapped in chains as if to bind her. In front of the statue stood a girl that he recognized. "Shino!" The boy bolted towards her, past the pews. As he got closer though, he began to slow down, realization dawning on him. "Wait...you're not Shino."

The girl who had been looking at the statue turned to him. Instead of Shino's white and black robe, she wore a white and green one. Blonde hair and golden eyes met his own. Before he could say more, she giggled and faded from view, like she was an illusion that had never been there. The statue disappeared as well, allowing the boy to get a good look at the stained glass window.

A figure that looked like him, but dressed in white, was in the center with his arms spread out to his sides and eyes closed. What looked like two bladed pistols were held loosely in his grip, and eight portraits surrounded him, most of whom he didn't recognize. Below him, a blue-eyed boy with spiky brown hair sat on what appeared to be a throne, a smile on his face and an oversized skeleton key with a golden guard and silver keychain resting point down between his legs. To the blue-eyed boy's left stood a girl in pink, with red hair and another oversized skeleton key; this one with a flower motif. Her empty hand rested atop the seated boy's hand, their fingers linked together. To the boy's right, a young man with silver hair stood. He had his hand atop both of the previous two's hands. Unlike them, he wielded what looked to be black sword, like something a creature of darkness would wield. Upon further inspection, there was a white feather at the tip of the black and red blade, and half of the guard was like an angel's wing. Behind the throne stood a blond boy in a black cloak wielding two of the oversized keys, one black as night, and the other as blue as the sky. He was looking behind him at the other three, a slight smirk on his face. His eyes were the exact same shade of blue as the throned boy's. Above all of them was a glowing moon in the shape of a heart, a cliff with three armored figures rushing towards it, and the silhouette of somebody rising up to the moon.

The boy turned away from the odd mural, only to see a figure shorter than him standing at the end of the pews a few feet away from him. He was dressed in red, with shaggy azure hair peeking out from under his cap, and his blue eyes were staring into the boy's own crimson ones. Twin daggers rested on his hips and a golden bracelet adorned his right wrist. Crossing his arms, the taller boy scoffed. "What, you gonna ask me a question too?" He began to walk past the other, intending to leave the cathedral. Then the boy in red spoke, just as he had passed him.

"What are you so afraid of?"

The taller boy froze, a gasp escaping him. He was tempted to tell this figure to screw off, to mind his own damn business. Yet when he turned to answer him, he found himself answering the question. "Getting old."

Unlike the previous two, the boy in red just smiled as he replied to the armored boy. "Is growing up really that scary?" With that, he walked up to the pedestal. The statue of the girl had reappeared, this time without the chains binding it.

The white-haired boy turned to the boy in red. He walked back over, gazing at the statue with him. He turned to the boy. So many questions were going through his mind right now; 'Why is this happening?', 'What's the point of all of this?', 'Where did Shino go?', or 'What's the deal with that window?'. He found a different question leaving his mouth. "Who...are you?"

The boy in red turned, smiled at him, opened his mouth and…

* * *

**SIND SIE DAS ESSEN? NEIN, WIR SIND DIE JAEGER!** With a startled gasp, a brown haired boy with red-ish brown eyes shot up out of bed. Shutting off the alarm on his phone, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and began preparing for class. In the shower, he briefly pondered if the strange dream had any meaning, but he was already forgetting the details of it. _Whatever, dreams are usually pretty weird anyway_, he rationalized. Grabbing a piece of toast, he calmly made his way to school. It was a Thursday, so it was almost the weekend. As long as he didn't have any homework tonight, he'd play The World and continue his search for the truth. Leaving the apartment he lived alone in, he made his way to class.

After he had left, a mail truck came by and deposited an envelope into his mailbox. It was from the boy's father, but on the back was a silver, crown-shaped seal…

* * *

**Author's Notes: IT BEGINS.**


	2. Chapter 1: Transfer Students

**Author's Notes: Now that the prologue is out of the way, we shall start our tale! Though this may be my first fic, I shall aspire to make it one of the best .hack fics there are on the web! Without further ado, let this chapter begin!**

**Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, I own nothing. If I owned .hack, I would be spending less time on those Naruto fighting games, and more time on an honest-to-God The World MMORPG...but without the whole "Ultimate AI" and "coma-inducing monsters" thing. Seriously guys, the Oculus Rift is a thing. We have the technology. We can create it. I am also completely unaffliated with both the University of Tokyo and Inage Senior High School in Chiba Prefecture.**

* * *

Seventeen year old Riku Chikyu stifled a yawn as he listened to the Modern History professor drone on about the course subject for today. The silver-haired boy (who had to confirm multiple times, to his great frustration, that yes, it was his natural hair color) had arrived today at the University of Tokyo after his transfer had been approved last week. While he had only barely been above the grade requirement, he had still been accepted because of his impressive skills in tennis. Briefly and subtly glancing around the lecture hall, he noticed that, with a few notable exceptions, nearly everybody else was in a similar state as he was; that is, bored out of their minds. At least, that was how Riku appeared to look.

In truth, Riku found it all incredibly fascinating. Pluto's Kiss, the catastrophe on December 24, 2005, when almost all computers across the globe crashed simultaneously because of a virus created by, of all people, a ten-year-old. What followed were seventy-seven minutes of chaos as everything connected to the Internet shut down or malfunctioned, including traffic lights, cellular phones, flight controls, and even nuclear defense systems. After the chaos, the only computers that had survived were those from ALTIMIT, due to them being constructed in such a way that they were practically immune to all known computer viruses. Internet traffic was restricted to government or business use only for the next two years, and hacking became a capital crime internationally.

Five years later, there was Pluto Again, the Second Network Crisis. There wasn't much concrete information about how or why exactly it had happened, but it resulted in multiple blackouts, malfunctions, and even shutdowns of systems across Japan. There had also been a great number of people that while playing The World, the first online game released since Pluto's Kiss, had fallen into comas, but most people thought that these were rumors or simply coincidental. That was seven years ago. Since then, CC Corp had made the decision to shut down The World, and "revise" it into what it was today, The World R:2.

A sneeze a couple seats to his left broke the teen from his thoughts, followed by a hushed voice scolding the source of the sneeze.

"I told you it wasn't a good idea to play through that storm last night, Daichi," a young woman in her early 20s whispered, Akira Hayami, smirking ever so slightly.

"So, you'd let a little rain stop you playing from tennis, Akira?" the young man, Daichi Kuramochi, shot right back, also in a hushed whisper. Akira pouted and blushed, despite the fact that she was a good inch or two taller than Daichi, and probably had just as many years over him too. The sight caused Riku to chuckle lightly, earning a fierce glare from Akira.

"Something funny, punk?" A raised eyebrow was the only reaction she got. Sure, he was dressed kind of roguishly, what with the faded jeans, and the yellow tank top and vest, but that didn't make him a punk...right? He sighed as he tried to focus on the lecture again, for once in his life glad that _those two_ weren't here as well; he was certain that he'd receive no mercy from them if they had heard that.

Yet now, his mind wandered to his two best friends, hoping that this wouldn't be too much for them. He chuckled again, this time to himself; throw a thousand or two mindless, heart-devouring abominations from the depths of darkness at them? Not a problem. The scenario they were in now? Well, Riku was just glad that he'd managed to end up in a college, unlike those two. _Perks of being the eldest, I suppose_, he thought with a smirk.

* * *

Sixteen year old Kairi Hikari suppressed yet another groan of frustration in the large courtyard at Inage Senior High School in Chiba Prefecture. That was the fifth guy that had tried to smooth talk her during lunch, and it had only been eight minutes. She hadn't even gotten to eat a single bite yet, for crying out loud! Normally, the "potential suitors"-as that's what the numerous jocks and preps liked to think they were-wouldn't be such an annoyance to her...except that it wasn't just during lunch that this had been happening.

It had been happening all day, ever since the principal had announced over the P. A. this morning that they would be having the honor of a "real princess" joining their ranks. At the rate this had been happening, it seemed like half of the school's boys-and even a few girls too-had come up to her, offering to "show her a good time". Each and every time, she forced a sweet smile and politely said "No thank you." _If I ever find out who decided that THAT was going to be my cover story, I am going to become their worst nightmare_, she thought to herself.

Picking up her tray, she silently walked away from her perpetually crowded table to find somewhere she could eat in peace, some of her unwanted fanclub and suitors following her despite this. She was about to give up completely when she spotted a dark-haired girl her age sitting against the fence, knees against her chest, looking up at the sky with a melancholy smile on her face. Hearing a snippet from one of the more popular girls behind her about "that ugly ditz", Kairi frowned, set her tray down a bit more forcefully than was needed, and walked towards the girl. She glanced upwards briefly in the direction the girl was staring and saw a flock of white doves; there must have been a wedding nearby, for there to be so many of them.

Having finally arrived, she took a seat next to the girl's right, noticing that she had closed her eyes and her head was no longer staring upwards, instead resting on her knees. For a brief moment, Kairi thought the dark-haired girl had fallen asleep, when she suddenly spoke in a hushed, somber voice to herself. "I wish I could be like them. I wonder how it would feel...to fly away and be free? To get away from my small life…my small world."

Kairi smiled a little, remembering a conversation that Riku had with someone else some time ago. "But part of one that's much bigger," her tone was also hushed, yet it was almost reverent. The other girl's eyes snapped open with a gasp, heading whipping up in surprise as she looked at Kairi, seated next to her in a very un-princess-like manner, legs crossed lazily over themselves and arms behind her head as she leaned against the fence, gazing at the cloudless sky wistfully. Kairi turned her head to look at the girl, a radiant smile on her lips as she extended her hand. "Hey there! My name's Kairi. Kairi Hikari. What's your's?" The dark haired girl looked nervously from the Kairi's face, to her hand, and back to her face again. Tentatively, she took the offered hand and shook it, answering Kairi's question with a slight stammer.

"Ch-Chigusa. Chigusa Kusaka."

As the two returned to watching the sky for the rest of lunch, Kairi grinned broadly. _I wonder...how _he _is doing?_

* * *

Seventeen year old Ryou Misaki sighed as he stared out the window. Eight months. Eight long, grueling months since Ovan had disappeared, and the Twilight Brigade had fallen apart. Eight months since Shino had fallen into a coma after being PKed-Player Killed-by the mysterious Tri-Edge in the online game The World. Eight months...and he still had no new information on the culprit. Nothing about his stats. Nothing about his location or hang-outs. Absolutely nothing. He was no closer to saving Shino than he had been when he'd started, and it was driving him insane! "Damn you, Tri-Edge," he muttered, staring out the window with a glare.

He was ripped from his thoughts as he heard the stern rapping of his teacher's ruler against the blackboard before him, "Quit daydreaming Misaki, and answer the question!" Another sigh slipped past Ryou's lips as he stood up to do so. This teacher never learned, did he? He cleared his throat to answer the question that he hadn't heard; he had read ahead, so he still knew the answer anyway, as usual. He wasn't top of the class at his private school for no reason, after all. Besides, it was a Friday. Class was almost over anyway, with only half an hour remaining. To top it all off, the school had, in an odd moment of generosity, deigned for the next month to be a month off for the students and teachers; for all intents and purposes, this would be Ryou's last day for a while. He opened his mouth to speak...only for the classroom door to slam open, interrupting him before he could even answer the question.

The culprit stood there, panting like he'd just run a relay race by himself. He was tanned, looking like he'd come from somewhere a lot more tropical than Tokyo. His hair was a chocolate brown, and seemed to point all over the place without the use of hair gel. All over his school bag dangled, of all things, keychains; big ones, little ones, ornate ones, plain ones, metal, plastic, and even one that looked to be made of wood! And then there were his eyes; as blue as the sky on a cloudless day. Ryou found everything about this young boy oddly familiar, but he just couldn't pin down why. The newcomer spoke, and for some reason his overly cheerful tone pissed a part of Ryou off to no end.

"Sorry I'm late! I...kind of slept in a little. Junior year transfer student Sora Asahi, ready for class!"

* * *

**Author's Notes: And the actors have entered the stage!**

**Now then, a bit of background info to some of names. First, Riku's last name, "Chikyu", is Japanese for "earth". Kairi's last name, "Hikari", is "light", obviously. As for Sora's last name, "Asahi" means "rising sun". Why choose that last name? Well, there are two reasons; first, the rock cover of "Simple and Clean" is commonly referred to as "Hikari-Rising Sun Mix". The second reason is that I didn't want Sora's last name to be the cliched "Hikari" of nearly every single other Kingdom Hearts story I've seen where Sora has a last name. Because cliches, unlike tropes, are not fun at all.**

**As for Daichi Kuramochi, the person behind the player Kite from the original .hack quadrilogy, I referred to the .hack wiki and my own judgement. You see, in the original four games, you entered the "real name" of Kite, and you could also change the character's name so that it wasn't even Kite! "Kuramochi" was the surname in pretty much all the concept art, but the proposed first names were quite different, going from "Kaito" (also Japanese for "Kite", to Yutaka, to Daichi OR Riku. So, why Daichi? Well, here's a bit of story time for those who aren't familiar with .hack!**

**In the original version of The World, known nowadays as "R:1", there was a monster that was deemed "unbeatable", called "The One Sin". Despite this supposed invincibility, two players known as Orca and Balmung managed to figure out how to beat The One Sin, and did so. For doing this, they became known as the "Descendants of Fianna", and were given the titles of "Balmung of the Azure Sky" and "Orca of the Azure Sea". In addition, Balmung, having struck the killing blow on The One Sin, was granted wings upon his character, a feature that no one else had in the game. Now, I won't go into the details of the first four .hack games, but Daichi means "land" in Japanese. "Riku" does as well, but we already have one, so...**

**Akira Hayami was the player behind BlackRose, Kite's first companion and ally in his quest, and yes, the two of them have been in a relationship for the seven years after the events of the quadrilogy...even though she is two years older than Daichi. The second person that the "armored boy" met in his dream was BlackRose, and the first person was Orca. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the last person was Kite.**

**Now then, I shall present you with...an Omake!**

* * *

**Omake #1: Goofy, Please.**

Goofy felt awfully proud of himself. Master Yen Sid had given him a task the other day; to come up with cover stories for Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Sora hadn't been too hard; a fairly ordinary boy, pretty average in every way. No need to arouse suspicion when there was no need to, right? Riku seemed like the type to play tennis, and he certainly seemed like he'd be able to pass as smart enough to be in college, so there had been that. As for Kairi, he'd had to think for a while, but eventually he settled on what (to him) was the perfect cover; the princess of a small but powerful foreign kingdom, adopted and hidden away for her own safety! After all, Yen Sid had told him that sometimes, the best lies were ones that told the truth. He'd said that seemed pretty paladoxical ("Paradoxical!" Donald had shouted.), but then again, who was he to question Yen Sid?

He was currently carrying a few crates of honey and syrup, to store them for later consumption. Normally, a task such as this would be designated to the brooms, but they wouldn't be able to handle the weight of the sticky, jarred foodstuffs. He was walking towards the stairs leading down to storage, when he spotted a banana peel a foot or so away from the bottom of the stairs, waiting for some poor fool to slip on it and tumble down the stairs! Glowering at the peel, he scolded the offending object. "Ooooh, no! I've tripped on enough banana peels in my life! Yer not foolin' me!" With the utmost care and caution, the Head of Disney Castle's Knights daintily stepped over the peel...and promptly slipped in a water puddle leftover from last night's storm.

In a rare moment of quick thinking, he grabbed the edges of the door frame to prevent him from falling to his doom. Once he regained his footing, he wiped the sweat from his brow in relief...and then he realized that he'd let go of all the syrup and honey he'd been carrying. A loud crash was heard at the bottom of the stairs, followed by the loud, angry screeching of one Donald Duck, who had been down there fetching some jam. "Gawrsh, sorry about that Donald! I'll be right there to help ya out!" He relinquished his grip on the door frame, taking a step back to valiantly come to Donald's assistance...and slipped on the very same banana peel that he'd been trying to avoid in the first place, sending him tumbling down the stairs anyway.

"YAAAAAHOOHOOHOOOOOYYY!"


	3. Chapter 2: Roommates

**Author's Notes: So, I was watching the opening sequence to Rebirth, in preparation for writing the next chapter...and I realized that the timeskip was EIGHT months, not six like I originally wrote. Whoops. Silly me. After all, one does not simply solo grind from Level 1 all the way to Level 133 in a mere six months. This shall be corrected once this chapter is finished uploading.**

**Also, here we get to the first reason as to why this fic is M-rated! Since there is a first reason, this implies that there are more...**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or .hack. I definitely wish I owned the latter, so I could get more support for it, but...**

* * *

Ryou looked down at the body of Shino Nanao. He had been doing this every single day for the past eight months, ever since she'd fallen into the coma. He'd visit and tell her something funny or interesting that had happened to him that day. She never responded, of course. She couldn't, in her comatose state. He'd heard that people in comas were still at least partially aware of their surroundings, so that's what he was hoping for, otherwise he'd feel pretty stupid when she woke up.

"Hey, it's you-know-who again. Sorry I'm late." He forced a chuckle out. "You're not gonna believe what my dad pulled with me…"

* * *

"_The hell do you mean 'you're staying with me'?!" he shouted at the transfer student, releasing the blue-eyed boy from his grip. Ryou had noticed that he was being followed ever since he'd left school to head to the hospital to visit Shino. It was as if his pursuer wasn't even trying to hide this fact. So, he'd ducked into an alleyway and hid, leaping out and pressing the boy against the wall, arm against his throat, ready to press down at a moment's notice to knock him out._

_Gasping for air and rubbing his throat, Sora looked up at him once he was sure there was no permanent damage. He was pretty sure his neck might bruise a little, but he'd live. "You didn't get the letter your dad sent you? Well, no problem, he gave me a copy, just in case you forgot." He rummaged through his bag for a few seconds before pulling out the envelope, his father's signature on the front and a silver crown seal on the back. It wasn't the usual stamp from the company on the envelope, so Ryou was initially suspicious. Yet that boy, Sora, didn't look like the kind of person who was, well, malevolent, so Ryou snatched the letter away and tore it open. Sure enough, there was a letter, typed from a computer and printed out, detailing that he'd be getting a roommate. At the bottom sat his father's signature, so neat that it had to have been stamped on, and the company logo beside it. He groaned in annoyance. Why did it seem like his bad feelings usually seemed to be spot on? On the bright side, he would be getting rent and be allowed to set the rules, and Sora was not a troublemaker; no drinking, partying, or smoking of any kind, as the boy himself had said._

_With a irritated "Follow me," Ryou began walking home, in the opposite direction of the hospital, without even looking to see if Sora was following him. He intended to get this over with as quickly as possible so he could see Shino, and then log in to The World to search for information. Arriving at his apartment, he gave Sora a brief tour of most of the house, stopping outside of his room last._

"_Alright, Sora. This is my room. Since you aren't the party animal, or do any of that other shit, there are only two rules here. Rule Number 1: Don't go into my room. Rule Number 2: _Do NOT_ go into my fucking room. Other than that, you've got free reign, as far as I'm concerned. Just let me know if you're gonna invite anybody over before hand, so I can not be around. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got somewhere to be. I'll be back later this evening." He turned and began to leave, but stopped and turned back around, fixing him with a glare that promised pain. "If you go in there, I _will _know."_

* * *

"...and that's about all there is to it. He's living with me, and I can't do squat. Hopefully he won't be too much of a pain in my ass." He sighed. "This is gonna sound crazy, but Sora feels...familiar, somehow. Which is weird, because I'd definitely remember meeting somebody as obnoxiously optimistic as him. Anyway, I'd better get going." He paused, placing a honeysuckle in the vase beside her. He looked back at her, the forced smile fading, and for the briefest moment it looked like he was about to burst into tears. Then his eyes hardened as he spoke.

"I'll find him, Shino. I'll find Tri-Edge, and I'll make him pay. That's a promise."

* * *

After Ryou had left, Sora let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Yen Sid had been insistent that Sora find this Ryou Misaki, but could the sorcerer at least have warned him that he was gonna be so, well, grumpy? This guy gave Leon and Cloud a run for their munny; he didn't want to imagine what would happen if all three of them somehow ended up in the same room together. He was about to head into his room when he heard a muffled 'pop', followed by the doorbell, and another muffled 'pop'. A part of him hoping that Ryou hadn't come back suddenly, he was relieved when he opened the door to see no one around. He was about to brush it off as a prank when he saw the package on the ground addressed to him. His curiosity piqued, he grabbed it and brought it inside. He went into his bedroom and opened it up, a letter sitting on top of the other objects inside it. Picking it up, he began to read the flowery script.

_Hey there, Sora! Hopefully Merlin can get this package to you real soon. You probably heard him poofing outside your new place to drop it off. Anyway, what was I supposed to tell you? Oh, yeah! Master Yen Sid told us that'd you'd need these things for your super top-secret mission. You're so lucky though; all you have to do is playing an online game! Anyway, Cid already took the liberty of making your character, and he even managed to give you your own special Class...or was it Role?...No, wait it was Job! That's what they're called...I think. Technically, it's illegally hacked, but Tron made it so that the game more or less recognizes it as a "promotional class", so it can't be deleted by anyone. Anyway, you'll have everything you need in this package. Merlin managed to enchant all the gear so that it wouldn't ever run out of juice, and so that if you ever manage to break it, it'll automatically fix itself. We all know how bad you are with computers, after all. Anyway, Aerith, Squall, and the rest of us here at the Restoration Committee are rooting for ya! Good luck! This is the Great Ninja Yuffie, signing out!_

Sora let out a laugh. He supposed they'd never let him live it down that he'd literally gotten sucked into Ansem's computer. It was more Donald's fault than his, and yet they constantly teased him about it. He was about to set the letter down when he saw a postscript.

_P.S. Yuffie forgot to mention it, but Riku and Kairi should be getting their own sets as well. You'll already have their Member Addresses, and there should be a camera built-in so you all can keep in touch. Stay safe. Aerith._

The grin on Sora's face looked like it could split his face in two. Without wasting another moment, he pulled out the laptop, slid the M2D headset over his eyes, plugged the controller into the laptop, and booted it up. The machine couldn't load up fast as the words "ALTIMIT MINE OS" appeared in the background, a soothing piano melody filling his ears. Rotating the menu away from "The World" and straight to the webcam image, he hit confirm. He was a little disappointed to see that Riku wasn't online yet, but seeing the words "Online" surrounded in dark blue next to Kairi's name almost made him jump for joy. He selected "Call With Video", and waited for her to answer. It hadn't even rung three times before she picked up, and he couldn't help but let out a laugh as she appeared on screen, an M2D over her own eyes. He vaguely recognized what sounded like a startled squeak from somewhere else in the room, but he couldn't stop laughing at how silly Kairi looked! "What's so funny, Sora?" she pouted, feigning annoyance.

"Have you looked in a mirror, Kairi? I mean, not that you could, what with that headset in your way," he teased, finally managing to control his laughter.

"You're one to talk! I'm surprised that you managed to fit that thing on over that mess you call your hair," she shot right back at him. Now it was Sora's turn to pout.

"Hey! Leave my hair out of this!" He sounded incredibly offended, and one would think he was...until he started laughing again. Kairi joined in too, and Sora realized that he heard a third person giggling with them. "Well, your roommate sounds like she enjoys my existence," he grinned. The third person let out another embarrassed sound.

Kairi giggled again, then held up a finger, signaling him to wait as she stood up, removed the headset, and walked across the room she was in. He heard a muffled conversation, and slid the headset above his eyes as he wondered what was going on. He saw Kairi come back in front of her computer, dragging a dark-haired girl who looked like a deer in headlights, despite the M2D on her face as well. "Well, go on. Say hello to him. He won't bite, I promise!" Kairi encouraged the girl.

"Oh, uh, hello there. I'm Chigusa. It's...nice to meet you, Mister Sora." Her voice was so quiet that Sora almost didn't hear her. He laughed when she called him "Mister Sora", as did Kairi. Chigusa looked down, suddenly very interested in the sheets she was seated on. Immediately, Sora stopped laughing.

"Hey, no need to be sad." His tone was respectful and kind. He grinned when she looked up. "Besides, 'Mister Sora' is my dad. Just call me Sora! No need for fancy titles or anything. Any friend of Kairi's is a friend of mine."

Chigusa looked as shocked as one could looked with a headset obscuring her eyes. "Friends?" she whispered.

Sora nodded. "That's right! We're friends now, no matter what! That's a promise!"

Chigusa's lip quivered for the briefest of moments, like she was about to burst into tears. Sora worried that he'd said something wrong for a moment before she smiled, a light blush adorning her cheeks. "Then...I'd be happy to have you as a friend, Sora!"

He smiled right back at her. "You know Kairi, your roommate's pretty cute." After he said that, Chigusa's mouth dropped into an astonished 'o', her blush darkening in color. "Of course, my girlfriend is much, much cuter." He gave a sly grin.

"G-girlfriend?! Kairi, you never told me that he had a girlfriend! Oh no, what if she finds out about this? What if she gets mad at me? What if-" Chigusa was stopped by the next words out of Kairi's mouth.

"His girlfriend already knows. After all, she's sitting right next to you."

For the second time that day, Chigusa's mouth took the amusing shape of a Cheerio. "Uh, Kairi, I think you might have broken her," Sora joked. Immediately disproving his theory, Chigusa shook her head and stood up, bowing to Sora.

"Well, um, it was very nice to meet you, Sora! I hope we'll get to meet someday!" With that, she headed back across the room to sit at her computer, picking up her controller.

"Well, at least she's nicer than my roommate. He's...pretty grouchy," Sora sighed, looking a little dejected. At least Kairi looked like she was getting along better with her roommate than he was with his own. Determined to wipe the frown off Sora's face, Kairi tried to think of a way to, before she glanced over at Chigusa and saw what she was playing.

"Sora! You have got to play this game! The World! It's just...It's so…look just, play the game, and you'll see!" Without further ado, Kairi slipped her own M2D back on and ended the call.

Sora raised an eyebrow, curious. For as long as he could remember, Kairi had _never_ been interested in video games. So either she only liked a specific kind of game...or this game was so good, that even Kairi enjoyed it. So now Sora was really excited to play this game.

"The World, huh? Alright, let's see what this is all about!" With that, he slipped the M2D back over his eyes, moved the cursor back to the position it had been when he'd first started up the laptop, and logged in to The World.

* * *

**Δ Server Root Town: Eternal City Mac Anu**

The sound of trickling water was the first thing that met the ear's of Sora after he Logged In. Then the chatter of the few players lounging in the hall he'd appeared in, some bartering, and others simply relaxing. He opened his eyes and saw that he was within a domed structure, standing over a small water way. As he looked into it, he was awestruck by his appearance.

He looked quite similar to how he'd looked when he'd first started his journey on Destiny Islands, with a few noticeable differences. His yellow shoes weren't nearly as oversized as they were before, a fact he was grateful for. His red shorts were held up slightly by the hardened leather armor covering the lower part of his torso. A blue belt hung loosely around his hips, leading up to a red zipped up shirt. A miniature hoodie sat on his shoulders; it was white on the outside and blue on the inside. It wasn't too snug, but neither was it too loose either. Around his neck hung a bronze necklace with the familiar crown symbol he usually wore. His eyes were the same sky blue that they were in real life. His hair, on the other hand, was vastly different. The front half was a lighter shade of brown than it normally was, and completely untamed. The back half was the complete opposite; dark brown and neatly trimmed. His gloves were exactly the same. Everything looked so real!

He caught a glimpse of something swishing out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see what it was, only for there to be nothing there. He was about to play it off as a trick of the mind, when he saw it again. So he turned, and once again found nothing. He continued this for a few more seconds before a girl shouted "It's your tail!" He looked over his shoulder and, lo and behold! He had a lion's tail. Forcing down his embarrassment, he turned to thank the player, only for her to speak once more. "Judging from how long it took for you to realize that was your tail, I'd say that you're a newbie, right?" The girl had a large, puffy hat, with baggy purple pants as well as a purple top. She bared her midriff and was smiling cheerfully. Beside her stood a man the same height as her, clothed in navy blue pants and a silvery chainmail top. His grey hair obscured his eyes, but he too wore a friendly smile.

"I'm IYOTEN, a Blade Brandier, and this is my partner Asta, an Edge Punisher. We like to help out newbs. Show them the ropes. It makes the game fun for us. Here, join a party with us! Take my Member Address," the man offered, handing Sora what looked like a business card with his name, player class, and other statistics on it.

"Mine too!" Asta gave Sora her's as well.

Upon closer inspection, Sora saw that the two of them were in their early-20s in terms of their Level, and they now had 100 Member Addresses, after having added him to it. "Wooooah! I'm gonna be the hundredth person you guy's have helped! That's pretty awesome!" Sora grinned cheerfully.

"Yup! Looks like it's our lucky day! All three of our's!" IYOTEN smirked.

"I know the perfect Field to go to!" Asta exclaimed, walking up to the Chaos Gate and speaking the Keywords aloud. "Δ Screaming Ruined Paradise!"

As the three of them Gated Out to the chosen Field, a figure dressed in a black cloak with the hood obscuring his features let out a sigh. "I swear, that kid is just too trusting for his own good sometimes." He couldn't intervene directly; not without exposing himself too soon. Indirectly, on the other hand... "Yeah, that could work." Typing out an anonymous e-mail to the user behind one Haseo, Ryou Misaki, the figure smirked under his hood; tell him that there might be a lead to Tri-Edge somewhere, and the boy would be off like a bloodhound in no time. Now all that remained was for him to get there in time. A slight chuckle escaped the man as he Logged Out.

* * *

**Author's Notes: IYOTEN and Asta seem pretty nice, don't they? Those of you familiar with .hack, however...well, let's just say that those who aren't are in for a surprise.**

**Anyway, we know that Sora got his laptop and what-not from Merlin, and Kairi surely got her's the same way...but what about Riku? Well...let's just say that, as a disclaimer, I don't own Harry Potter or Scooby-Doo.**

**EDIT: Changed the ending to this chapter, and I'm going to be redoing the next chapter. I looked over it again, and realized a little to late that it was...going a little too fast. Changes should be up shortly.**

* * *

**Omake #2: A Wizard Did It...**

Merlin let loose a sigh, crumbling an Ether in his hand and letting the item restore his mana pool. He couldn't recall the last time he'd ever Apparated in such rapid succession! Wait, he's never Apparated this many times in such rapid succession before. He let loose a chortle, certain that this would would set a Wizarding World Record; after all, how many could claim to have Apparated between worlds in rapid succession before? Kairi's delivery had been rather easy; wait until the parents of her roommate were out of hearing distance, Apparate in, drop the package off, and Disapparate away like he'd never been there. Kairi hadn't arrived back from school yet.

Sora's package had been a little trickier, since he and his roommate were there. He'd waited until he'd seen with his portable crystal ball that the roommate had left, Apparated outside the apartment, set the package down, attempted to knock before remembering that doorbells where a thing, used said doorbell, and Disapparated back to Radiant Garden.

Now came Riku's package. Since he was somewhat tired, he didn't bother checking if nobody was there. He Apparated in, muttered "Alohamora" to unlock Riku's door, set the package on his bed, walked back out (after making sure he'd locked the door behind him), and was about to Disapparate when...

"By my beard! Who let a skunk in here?!" He looked to his right, only to see a young man and his Great Dane staring at him with wide, bloodshot eyes, a lit piece of paper about to slip from the man's lips and drop to the floor. That would surely cause a fire! Merlin cast a weak Water spell, absolutely drenching the young man and the dog. Then he realized that this man had most likely seen _everything_. "Oh, bollocks." Merlin muttered. Wasting no time, he prepared to Disapparate, pointing his wand at the soon-to-be ex-witness, and spoke in a perfectly calm voice.

"Obliviate."

The Memory Charm went off without a hitch, erasing the short-term memories of the young man completely as the young man blinked. There was a 'pop', and Merlin was gone by the time the young man had reopened his eyes. Blinking stupidly, the man looked down at himself and said only one thing aloud. "Zoinks, Scoob. Like, how'd I get so wet?" The Great Dane did not respond, as he was too busy fearfully chewing his nails off at the sight he'd just seen.


	4. Chapter 3: Start With A PKK

**Author's Notes: Oh, man, oh, man! Is it just me, or are these chapters getting exponentially longer as I write them?**

**Anyway, here we are to Chapter Three. As for the usual disclaimer, I own neither Kingdom Hearts or .hack. Please support the official releases.**

* * *

**Δ Screaming Ruined Paradise**

The area they had arrived in could best be described as a wasteland. Even with the stony, boring landscape going on and on for digital miles, Sora was excited. True, some of the monsters were kinda scary-looking at first, but he'd gotten over that quickly. He wasn't excited about how real the game looked, though. Well, he was a little, but that wasn't the main reason.

He could use the Keyblade in this game! In addition to that, the first Skill he had was Stun Impact, an old favorite of his when he'd first started adventuring. True, it was flashy, and it left him open for a few precious seconds in the real world, so he no longer used it. But this was game, so it was perfectly fine to do that! Since he'd waited to trigger the skill until the monster had glowing rings surrounding it, like Asta had suggested, he'd managed to pull of a "Rengeki", boosting his Morale Gauge quite a bit. Unfortunately, the stun effect hadn't lasted very long, but that was mostly due to the difference in levels between him and the monsters; since they'd been Level 5, and he'd only been Level 1, the stun duration had decreased proportionately to the difference in levels. On the bright side, he'd been fighting long enough that he was now Level 4, and his Job Level had increased to 2.

"I gotta say, I've been playing this game for quite a while, and I've never seen a Skill like that! Or a weapon like that, come to think of it. How'd you get it, Sora?" IYOTEN had asked him after seeing the Skill in action, walking behind Sora with Asta.

"Oh, I, ah, got it as part of a...contest. Came up with it myself!" It was a pretty bad lie, Sora realized, but it was better than telling the truth.

"Contest? How come I didn't hear anything about this contest?" Asta said, hands behind her head in an almost lazy pose as the three walked. As she and IYOTEN were walking behind Sora, he never saw the look Asta gave IYOTEN, nor the nod of his head and their sudden smiles. "Well, nevermind that. Say, how about we go show you something really unique about this area? Last one there is a rotten egg!" She laughed as she ran ahead of Sora, giving him a push to entice him to chase after. Grinning, Sora chased after her in the impromptu game of tag, laughing along as well. IYOTEN ran behind, a smile on his own face, but for a very different reason than Sora's.

* * *

Ryou let loose a sigh as he finally managed to make it back to his apartment from visiting Shino. He didn't even bother to check up on Sora. In most circumstances, the boy was a pretty good judge of character. Sora seemed incredibly laid-back, so he was probably asleep by now or something. Heading to his room, which he noticed hadn't been disturbed at all. A tiny, cruel part of him was disappointed at the lack of reason to kick his new, completely unwanted roommate out. Sighing, he put on his M2D and started up his computer. He was immediately notified of a new e-mail message. Quirking his brow slightly, he went to check what it was. The sender was simply listed as "Unavailable", which struck him as odd, give how he filtered his incoming e-mail to an extreme level. He was about to delete the message, when he saw the Subject Line, eye's widening slightly in shock.

_Sender: Unavailable_

_Subject: Tri-Edge_

_There will be PKers at **Δ Screaming Ruined Paradise **today. I tell you this, not because you're a PKK, but because I'm fairly certain that they might just have information about Tri-Edge. They won't be there for long though, so you'd better hurry._

_Oh, and if ya see anyone you recognize there, it might be in your best interest to help them out. Just saying._

Wasting no time, he went straight to Log In to The World, not even bothering to check the forums first like he usually did. The game couldn't load fast enough for him as he, or rather, his Player Character Haseo entered Mac Anu. Haseo stood at a height of 5'8", and had red eyes similar to Ryou; that was where the physical similarities ended. Haseo's hair was a stark white, and his black heavy armor looked like something more fitting for a demon than a human, with it's numerous spikes, the purple section of armor on his torso that looked disturbingly similar to skin, and the spine-like protrusion of his armor that started at the base of the neck and went down to just above his waist.

His Job was a rather unpopular one in the game; the Adept Rouge. The Adept Rouge class was unique, able to, after completing special quests known as "Job Extensions", wield weapons normally reserved to other Jobs. The could also wear any armor in the game. To keep the game balanced, Adept Rouges had certain restrictions as to what weapons they could wield. Relying on a point system, Adept Rogues would choose two or three classes to use the weapons of, within reason. After all, you couldn't just choose a game-breaking combination, such as to be a Harvest Cleric healer _and_ a spell-slinging Shadow Warlock, while wearing heavy armor that wasn't normally available for those classes by default. They also learned their weapon Skills at a much slower rate than normal, so a Level 20 Steam Gunner would have more Skills than an Adept Rogue of the same level. Despite the slower learning rate, Adept Rogues that progressed far enough would have a much larger variety of Skills for use in combat. At the same time, however, their statistics-Physical Attack and whatnot-were at best, average. Most people saw the class as practically worthless, a jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none of them.

Haseo was not "most people." Without a word, Haseo turned toward the spinning Chaos Gate, then immediately went to the Field specified in the e-mail. The Adept Rogue would get the information he wanted, no matter the cost.

He didn't have to spend very long looking before he saw a sight quite common in The World below him and the plateau he stood upon; Player Killers, rounding up their prey. He noted that a fourth victim was being dragged over, but he couldn't make out who it was from his distance. He didn't waste anymore time watching the events he knew would unfold as he calmly, but briskly, began to walk off to confront his quarry, a sinister chuckle passing his lips.

* * *

It all had happened so fast, that he hadn't had time to resist. Sora had been chasing Asta around a corner, when she suddenly stuck her arm out, clothes-lining him and knocking him to the ground. Before he could shout at her after standing up, he found that he couldn't move; IYOTEN had him in an armlock. Despite his protests, he found himself being dragged by the two of them to a circle of other players; very mean-looking players. To his horror, there were three other players trapped within the ring. One was already on the ground; by the looks of things, he was dead.

A slim, dark-skinned woman in revealing purple armor was stalking towards the remaining two, tapping a malevolent, thorny sword in her hand. From an aesthetic view, Sora would have thought she was beautiful in her in way...until she swung at the other male, who still received a fatal blow even as he'd turned away to try and try and run. Finally snapping out of her fear-induced state, the single girl in the group of victims turned to run, thinking she'd spotted a gap...only to be shoved onto her rear by a fat, dark-skinned man with closed eyes and a massive turquoise sword, and a lanky, shirtless pale man that chuckled at her. "Good work Grein, Negimaru," the woman commended the respective PKers. The lanky one chuckled a bit more, while the fat one simply grunted in acknowledgement.

Sora wanted to look away, but as the girl was scooting away from the two that had blocked her off, her eyes found Sora's own. She spoke, fear riddling her voice and tears about to spring from her eyes. "Please help me..." She didn't notice the dark woman laughing as she approached her from behind until it was too late. "Ah-" Before she could continue, the woman swung her sword with an utterly delighted shout, decapitating the defenseless girl. There was a small part of Sora's mind that kept trying to remind him that this was just a game, that she hadn't really been killed. But it looked so real...

He didn't realize that IYOTEN had shoved him forward, saying something about them finding "another one", until he fell to the ground. The woman let out a laugh as she pressed her boot into the headless corpse. "Why...Why are you doing this?!" he found himself shouting.

The woman glared over her shoulder at him, then smiled maliciously. "Hah, what an idiot!" She went back to admiring her latest kill; she'd get to this new one soon enough. She pondered how she'd kill this one when she heard the faint sound of armor jingling, like someone was approaching them from behind. She ignored it, as did the other PKers. When she heard two consecutive grunts and a loud thud, every PK turned around, seeing that two of the PKs in the back were lying on top of each other on the ground, picking themselves up. A figure in dark armor was lowering his foot, so it was logical to assume that he had just kicked the rear-most PK. "Huh?" The woman was confused; who thought they had the balls to do this?

Beside her, Negimaru's eyes widened as he raised a shaking finger to point at the newcomer. He had somehow managed to look even paler than normal. "The Terror of Death!" he gasped in absolute horror as the some of them looked confused.

All of the blood drained from IYOTEN's face as he realized just who this was. The very same boy that he and Asta had PKed on his first day playing. It was ironic that, in a way, this lead to what he was now. "IT'S HASEO! THE PKK!" he shrieked in horror as he inadvertently drew the attention of the Terror of Death to him and Asta.

"What?!" the woman let out a gasp. Haseo grinned like he was the Devil himself, for he may as well have been to the PKers, as he reached behind him to draw his twin blades in a flash of light. In a move that was too fast for Sora to even see, Haseo had dashed past Asta and IYOTEN each, striking them both down in about _two seconds_. The next two he'd dashed two lasted a couple seconds longer as they attempted to strike him at the same time, but Haseo deflected them both with no effort and killed them in a single hit as well. He dashed for the woman next, who appeared poised to strike, but instead opted to block his next series of strikes, her eyes wide in terror. Flipping backwards in an attempt to get away from him, the woman found it was pointless when he dashed right after her, so much pressure being placed on his dagger against her sword that sparks were flying off.

It seemed that he would break through when a battlecry came from above, Negimaru being the source as he along with Grein sought to smash Haseo into the ground. Flipping away seconds before the impact, Haseo slid backwards, right into the middle of ten PKers. The grin never left his face as he sheathed his daggers and with an slight grunt of effort pulled out a wickedly sharp scythe. Swinging it around him, he instantly killed five while launching the other half into the air. He then proceeded to leap after them, swinging the scythe around once more. He landed back in a crouch, their bodies following after him.

Negimaru charged Haseo from his right, managing through sheer dumb luck to take him by surprise and knock his scythe away. Having successfully disarmed him, he gloated with a laugh, instead of pressing the attack. Yet Haseo was still smiling. A sound of confusion escaped him as Haseo simply raised his palm right in front of his face, light coalescing with in it. Unleashing the **Lei Zas** Light spell, Negimaru was sent flying away, a cloud of dirt signalling his collision with a mountain.**  
**

A grunt of effort behind him alerted Haseo to Grein attempting to crush him with his sword. He leaped a fair distance away, but was followed by a surprisingly fast Grein, who prepared to take another swing at him. Haseo seemed to deliberately wait for him to reach the peak of his swing, before he smirked and dodging again. As soon as he'd landed he reached over his shoulder and pulled out his own broadsword; a massive black blade with what appeared to Sora to be stationary teeth on both edges of the blade. Sora was immediately proven his assumption wrong as the teeth began rotating like a chainsaw, sparks flying from the tip laying on the ground. Grein took another roaring leap at Haseo, the two foes broadswords colliding with each other. Grein's eyes and mouth shot open in silent shock as he quickly realized that Haseo's chain-sword was cutting through the blade of his own. He had no time to react as Haseo suddenly broke the stand off, then slashed up and down to finish him off.

The woman began charging at Haseo, despite being the only PK left. The Blade Brandier swung her sword, Spider's Karma, and managed to get in a lucky swing between the teeth, jamming the chain-sword. A brief power struggle ensued that the woman promptly lost, Haseo easily overpowering her and sending her flying with a swing. She ended up landing a few yards away, a brief shriek escaping her as she flew through the air. She made an attempt to get back up from her position on her knees., but realized she was far to weak to do so. It was over; Haseo had won.

"Nngh...I'm surprised; I didn't think you'd be that strong." She spoke as Haseo calmly approached her. She was speaking loud enough for Sora to hear as well. "I guess this means that the rumor about you killing one hundred PKers at once wasn't a lie after all!" Sora's jaw dropped at this; a hundred? At the same time?! That was incredibly impressive. Haseo had finally made it towards the woman, glaring at her. "H-Hey, come on, don't look at me like that." to Sora, it almost sounded like she regretted what she'd done, which confused him a bit. The woman continued speaking. "Here, lemme apologize. Just take it easy, calm down, and..." she grabbed her sword and swung at him in a rage "DIE!"

The sound of metal impacting flesh clanged through the area. A figure was sent flying backwards through the air, landing right next to Sora. Their sword landed beside them with the point buried into the ground. The woman made to stand up again, but had barely gotten to her knees when she gasped as she found Haseo's sword positioned right beneath her neck. Averting her eyes, the woman made an annoyed sound. Haseo spoke for the first time, and for some reason his voice was _very_ familiar to Sora. "Do you know 'Tri-Edge'?"

"What did you say?" The woman sounded a bit confused.

"He's a legendary PK, shrouded in blue fire. They say players that get killed by him never come back to the game," he explained. Sora's eyes widened at this.

"Huh?! Oh, come on now!" She brushed the sword away from her, finally standing up as she tried not to laugh. "Don't tell me you actually believe that crap! Those old forum fairtales." She began leaning forward, in an attempt to get in Haseo's face. "So, you think you can go up against me, the great Bordeaux, and just walk away like nothing hap-" Bordeaux never got to finish her sentence as she found the chain-sword uncomfortably close to her neck once again. As the blades began spinning, Bordeaux flinched back in fear. Sora, having been to Bordeaux's right, got a clear view of Haseo's absolutely livid face as worked his blade and killed her in the exact same way that she'd had killed the girl earlier.

As Bordeaux's headless corpse flopped to the earth with a thud, Haseo scoffed as he stared at it. "Yeah, I think I can." He began turning, ready to head back to the Root Town, when he spotted the figure who looked so much like his roommate staring at him with wide eyes; fear, awe, gratitude, all of that and more? The thoughts behind those eyes were not what was on Ryou's mind. What was on his mind was _Oh, shit, I'm going to look like a complete psycho to him._ For some insane reason, that actually bothered Ryou, and he did not have a clue why! Opening his mouth to speak, he posed a question to the figure, "Sora?"

Sora tilted his head, point a finger at himself. "Yeah, that's my name, but...who are you?"

Haseo had to stop himself from shouting 'Oh, nobody in particular, just your roommate who just so happens to kill Player Killers by decapitation sometimes!' He instead let out a sigh. This was good; Sora didn't recognize him. _Why _this was good, Ryou couldn't wrap his head around, but he decided to focus on the matter at hand; namely, Sora. "What, you didn't see that whole fight where I saved your ass?" His tone was mocking, even cruel, given that Sora flinched a bit at the harshness of Haseo's words. A tiny part of Haseo felt bad; he immediately suppressed the feeling. He walked over and, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder and let loose...was that a chuckle? Sora didn't have time to wonder, as the two of them were surrounded by a soft blue light, encasing them as they were warped back to the Root Town.

* * *

**Author's Notes: *A in C Minor***

**Phew! That took a while! Some of you might have noticed that this chapter has been more-or-less completely redone. The reason for this is that, upon further inspection and thought, I realized that I had been pacing the story WAY too fast with the original version of this chapter. I was originally going to drop a hint in the e-mail Haseo received as to WHO he had received it from, but that'd probably spoil too much, for those of you who didn't read the old version. For those of you that did, disregard it. Oh, and if you tell ANYONE.**

**I will find you.**

**For those of you who haven't played G.U. and would like a bit of a reference as to how the fight went, look up "dotHack GU Vol. 1 Rebirth Cutscene 005". It's entitled "The Terror of Death" and was uploaded by the user OptimisticPessimist. Or you could, y'know, go buy the game.**

**No omake this time, because my creative juices are all dried at the moment.**


	5. Chapter 4: Mistaken Identity

**Author's Notes: Here we are at Chapter Four! Some of you readers may be asking yourselves, "Is this just going to be a plain old copy-paste retelling of the G.U. games, with Sora, Kairi, and Riku shoved in?"**

**Shhhhh. Later, sweet ones...**

**Anyway, here we go, back to Mac Anu!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or .hack. They're owned by Square Enix and NamcoBandai. Dear god, this is going to get really annoying really fast, what with how many chapters I have planned...**

* * *

**Δ Server Root Town: Eternal City Mac Anu**

The sound of trickling water once again met Sora's ears for the second time that day as he warped into Mac Anu beside the man who had saved him. Haseo, for his part, made sure to remove his hand from Sora's shoulder before anyone could see him like that. It was bad enough that he had managed to save this player, who would undoubtedly go on to spread tales about how he'd been saved by him. Not like there would be anyone who believed him; in the past, he would always come in after the PKs had finished their grim deeds. Hopefully none of the other players there had seen him warping in with Sora, and if they had, then they would just brush it off a coincidental timing.

"Well...thanks a bunch for your help back there! I kinda wish I could give you something as thanks!" Sora grinned at him, that same obnoxious grin that he had in the real world.

"Just...do me a favor? Don't go spreading that info around online. I've got a reputation to hold up," Haseo grumbled back. "As long as you don't do that, I'll consider that fair payment. Besides, it's not like there's anyone who would believe you," he sneered ever so slightly after the last statement.

"Alright, you've got it! Not a peep from me!" Despite Haseo's less-than-pleasant attitude, Sora just kept on smiling, throwing a thumbs up at Haseo for good measure. Then, Sora let out a gasp. "Kairi! I was supposed to meet up with her! Sorry Haseo, but I've gotta go! Maybe I'll see you later sometime!" Without waiting for his reply, Sora waved at Haseo, then burst into a run out of the domed building, as if the very hounds of hell were on his heels.

_Man, what was that all about? He didn't even give me his Member Address,_ Haseo thought to himself. _All that work, and no new information on Tri-Edge, _he frowned deeply at the thought. Without another word, he calmly walked out into the bustling streets of the Eternal City. Maybe he'd get lucky, and some new info would pop up...

* * *

"Seriously, where is he?" Kairi said aloud with a slight frown, swinging her legs on the fountain she sat upon in the main plaza of Mac Anu. She twirled a few strands of her much longer red hair absent-mindedly. She had to admit, Cid did good work when it came to designs. She was pretty sure that Aerith had a hand in the creation of her character was well. Kairi's hair was much longer than it was in real life; it flowed down her back all the way to her hips in smooth cascade of crimson. Her eyes were the same ocean blue they were in real life. Around her hips, there was an armored burgundy skirt that ended just above her knees, with hot pink leggings that clung to her legs. Her midriff was bare, but she had no problems with that. She'd lived on an island most of her life after all, and it was just a game anyway. A light blue tattoo surrounded her belly button in the shape of a heart. Her top was essentially an armored bra, and she wasn't quite sure if the color of the armor was a darkish pink, or a lightish red. To her amusement, she hadn't been the only one who had noticed this.

"I hope he's okay…" Standing near her was Chigusa. _No, not Chigusa. Atoli,_ Kairi reminded herself. Unlike Kairi, Atoli was radically different online. Short blonde hair, golden yellow eyes, and a green and white dress and hat. She was much more cheerful too...almost too cheerful.

"Hopefully he hasn't met with misfortune. After all, there are many who prey upon those who have just began their journey." In front of Atoli stood a man with dark green hair strung up in a ponytail. Atoli had gleefully introduced him as Sakaki. His outfit and overall demeanor vaguely reminded Kairi of something she'd seen in one of her new textbooks, a general from ancient times who served under and was only loyal to an emperor; a shogun.

Kairi had been saddened when she initially heard about this; players killing other players, essentially for sport. Had that happened to Sora? No, Sora wouldn't have let that happen to him. She let out a giggle. "I really doubt it's something that dramatic. No, it's more likely that he fell asleep." If that was the case, then Kairi would just have to wait until tomorrow. She stood up, about to walk to the Chaos Gate to logout, when a commotion at the stairs caught her eye.

A young boy with a lion's tail was dashing towards the stairs, a wide grin on his face. Kairi would recognize that smile and those eyes anywhere. As the boy reached the top of the stairs, he suddenly tripped over his own feet, sending him tumbling down the stairs until he ended up at the bottom, lying on his back. A few players stared at him as he gazed up at the sky before they returned to what they were doing. It was a strange sight, but strange sights were fairly common in The World. He had just closed his eyes resting his hands behind his head, when Kairi's giggling caused him to stand back up. He headed towards her with a determined look on his face, a slight frown marring his features. Sakaki looked ready to move at a moments notice when the boy stopped, arms folded across his chest and his tail swishing behind him. "Gimme a break, Kairi." Kairi was certain that he was trying really hard not to smile.

"Sora, you lazy bum. I was wondering when you'd stop snoozing and get here." Having stated that this was indeed Sora, Atoli sighed in relief and smiled. Sakaki relaxed as he turned to Atoli, seeing as this young man was indeed Sora and posed no threat to them. Kairi and Sora stood next to them.

"I wasn't sleeping!" Sora denied. "I was...well, I'll tell you about it later. You probably won't believe me, but it was pretty awesome!" Another grin split his face.

Before Kairi could ask what he was talking about, a figure in menacing black armor walked past them, looking like he had a purpose, and that anyone who got in his way would regret it. As he passed by the four of them, Sakaki spoke, turning to the figure. "So, it's you...you, the character that stinks of death; 'The Terror of Death'. You're the PKK, Haseo." Haseo froze in his tracks as Sakaki continued talking, his tone quickly becoming one of accusation. "Players who kill other players are disgraceful. And I agree it's terrible how PKs can just strut around The World so easily these days, but is it right that you PKKs have chosen to use brute force to stop them?"

Haseo didn't even turn to face him as he spoke. "I don't have time for this. Not now…"

Sakaki continued to speak despite the dismissal. "You have no authority and it earns you nothing, so why? I am the leader of Moon Tree's Unit 2. My friend's call me Sakaki, and I'm afraid I cannot overlook your actions." Sora and Kairi both wondered what exactly a 'Moon Tree' was as Haseo finally turned partially towards them, a spark of recognition crossing Sora's face when he did. Before Kairi could question it, Haseo spoke again.

"Did you say 'Moon Tree'? What's that? The name of a guild?" Haseo laughed, his tone oozing sarcasm. "Sorry, Sakaki, but I've already got enough friends, thanks." He turned away again, walking off with a dismissive wave of his hand. Before he got too far away, Atoli suddenly ran after him, Kairi and Sora following slightly behind her.

"Do you always interrupt people like that? You know, Sakaki wasn't finished talking to you yet." Haseo let out a slight groan and turned, intending to chew out the woman who had been harping at him, when his eyes widened at the sight of her face.

As gasp escaped him, his voice was quiet and hopeful, and was that a smile on his face? "Shino!"

* * *

"Huh?" the girl tilted her head, confused at Haseo's sudden mood shift.

"Atoli, do you know this person?" Sakaki walked up behind them, throwing the girl a questioning look.

"Uh, no." Atoli shook her head, crushing the hopes Haseo had that Shino had miraculously woken up.

"Atoli…?" Haseo frowned at the revelation.

"It's not unusual to meet players with similar characters in an online game like this," Sakaki explained, as if Haseo were a child. "Hmph, just a case of mistaken identity." Haseo was just about ready to punch Sakaki in his smug face. Oddly enough, Haseo noticed that Sora looked rather similar. Haseo took a fighting stance, glaring as Sakaki.

"Hey, you...why don't you just-" Before he could finish, an alert went off in his ears. _Huh? A short mail? "__**Δ Hidden Forbidden Radiation**__. Waiting at Arche Koeln." But, who sent it?_ Just then, he saw someone in the crowd, at the top of the staircase. There was only one person he knew in the entire game that had his left arm covered with an enormous cylinder like that. "Ovan?!" He whispered in a breathless gasp. Ovan turned and began walking away, causing Haseo to panic slightly.

He charged forwards, pushing Atoli out of the way, then Sora, and everyone else who got in his path. By the time he'd reached the staircase though, Ovan had disappeared. He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. "Just hold on a moment!" Sakaki urged. Haseo sent the hand's owner a glare and nudged his shoulder off, heading for the Chaos Gate to pursue Ovan. He vaguely noticed that Atoli, Sora, and that other girl were with him, but he ignored them all. "Why don't you stop acting like a complete fool! Remember, what you PKKs are trying to do...if you succeed, you'll be no different than the PKs themselves!"

_I don't care about the other PKKs. I don't care about the other PKs, or even the other players. The only one I care about right now is Shino... and I'll do whatever it takes to bring her back._

* * *

Once Haseo had left, Sora frowned at Sakaki, his fist clenched in anger. Before Kairi could stop him, he spoke. "That wasn't fair! Lumping him together with PKs...he's not like that at all!"

Sakaki turned to him, a frown marring his face, but otherwise, his expression was calm. "And just how would you know that? The only difference between PKs and PKKs is who they target. Sometimes it's not even that! So how could you possibly know that he's any different?"

Sora looked down, his anger dissipating at Sakaki's words. As Sakaki began to walk off, satisfied that he had won the argument, Sora spoke again, eyes still downcast. "I know because there was once a time when I was like him..." Sakaki turned to face him warily, Atoli giving him a similar look. Kairi tilted her head, curious as to what Sora meant. When Sora looked up again, he was smiling. Not a silly, tooth-filled grin, but a small smile, the corners of his lips just barely pointing upwards. "...when I'd lost my light." A small blush crept across Kairi's face in the real world, displaying on her character as well because of the M2D.

"Sora…"

"So, that's why I'm going to help him! To bring him out of his darkness, and back to the light." He proclaimed with a grin, a fist slamming into his palm in determination.

Both Sakaki and Atoli were taken aback by this. He said it like it was so simple, like it wasn't a matter of 'if', but 'when'. "B-But how?" Atoli asked, eyes widened.

Sora grinned at Kairi. "Well, it shouldn't be too hard. We have done it before, right Kairi?"

Kairi smiled at Sora. This was just like him; always ready to help others at the drop of a hat. "True, but don't you think you're forgetting someone?" She grinned, wondering if he would be able to figure it out.

It took Sora a moment, but then his eyes lit up. "Oh yeah! Where is Riku, anyway?"

"Sora, I expected you to use the same name, but Kairi too? Color me disappointed," a figure laughed behind them, placing a black gloved hand on each of their shoulders and startling them at his sudden appearance. He was a full head taller than either of them, garbed in a earthy brown shirt with dark blue pants. His long and unkempt silver hair was kept from obscuring his aquamarine eyes by a black bandana around his forehead. "And here in The World, don't call me Riku. Call me Kurayami."

* * *

**Δ Hidden Forbidden Radiation: Lost Ground Arche Koeln Waterfall**

Haseo warped in on a small pathway. He took a brief moment to look behind him at the the waterfalls flowing over the gigantic ruins in the background, as well as the strange glowing characters trailing lazily in the air. One way to tell for sure if an area was a Lost Ground was if those were there. Haseo didn't spend any time admiring the scenery; it wasn't why he was here. He walked forward towards the man who had called him here, noting that his back was turned to the Adept Rogue. Once he was close enough, he spoke, more than a little angry at the man. "Ovan!"

The man who stood a full two heads higher than Haseo turned to him. He was dressed in white and black, with an azure scarf around his neck that covered his mouth. His entire left arm was covered in a massive metal cylinder, a bronzed lock keeping it sealed. The sun briefly silhouetted the man as he turned to Haseo, eyes obscured by amber glasses gazing at him. Unlike Haseo, the man was the epitome of serenity as he spoke to him. "It's been a long time, Haseo. Or maybe I should call you 'The Terror of Death'?"

* * *

**Author's Notes: Cliffhangers! Just what are Sora, Kairi, and Riku-I mean, Kurayami-planning to do? Why does Atoli look so much like Shino to Haseo? And just who is the riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma that is Ovan? Could it be that he knows Tri-Edge? Find out next time, on /Reconnect!**

**In the meantime, have an omake! And before I forget, I do not own Team Fortress 2. Valve does.**

* * *

**Omake Number 3: "Send me!"**

Lea barged from the room beside Yen Sid's chambers that housed the Three Good Fairies. His once-red hair was a garish shade of green and his cloak was currently hot pink. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so mortified. In spite of this, he would have answers from the old sorcerer.

"Alright, you old coot! Start talking! I can understand sending Riku and Sora. Hell, I encourage it, given how much experience they have. But sending Kairi instead of me? That's just plain stupid! She's a Princess of Heart, she has little combat experience, and she's gonna end up sucking faces with Sora instead of doing her job! I have more experience, Xehanort isn't after me, and I'm not in a relationship with the damn brat! You've stuck me with those three in there, and they've ruined my hair! So I'm only going to say this once, and once only: send me where they went!"

Yen Sid, for his part, did not answer. Or rather, he couldn't answer. He tried to, but it's rather hard to speak when you have someone poking around in your teeth. Instead, the doctor who was seated next to him spoke to Yen Sid. "...and vhen ze patient voke up, his skeleton vas missing, and ze doktor vas never heard from again!" The dentist began cackling, as did Yen Sid. Or at least Lea thought Yen Sid was laughing, it was hard to tell. "Anyvay, zat's how I lost my medical license," the dentist continued, Yen Sid suddenly paling at this new information, followed by him suddenly flinching.

A white dove poked it's head out of Yen Sid's beard, a couple loose strands of hair in it's beak. "Archimedes! Nooo! It's filthy in zere! Ugh..." The dentist shooed Archimedes away, the bird perching on a bookshelf nearby. He faced back to Yen Sid, who was currently glowering as best he could at him. The dentist ignored it with a shrug of his shoulders. "Heh, birds. Now zhen..."

"Hey! Herr Doktor, or whatever. Tell Yen Sid to send me!" The dentist looked up at Lea with a slight frown, stood up, and began pushing him back into the room. "Hey, what are you doing? Tell him to send me! Don't leave me back in there with those fairies! Anywhere but there! Send me! SEND MEEEEE!"

The Medic whispered only one word in a tone sounded more like a denial of the request than an affirmative, as he shut and blockaded the door Lea was behind. "Later."


	6. Chapter 5: Tri-Edge

**Author's Notes: You all are in for a treat today! Two chapters in one day! Aren't I just awesome?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Heart or .hack.**

* * *

**Δ Hidden Forbidden Radiation: Lost Ground Arche Koeln Waterfall**

Haseo stared at Ovan as he asked the question, narrowing his eyes slightly with is arms crossed. Ovan stared back, his expression unreadable. "You've gotten quite strong. A lot stronger than you were back then…" The older man's voice was deep, but it was neither too loud, nor was it too quiet. It betrayed no emotion from his statement.

Haseo shrugged his shoulders; Ovan had always been like this. "Well, I was forced to become stronger…" He added a bit of venom to his voice. "...thanks to you." For his part, all Ovan did was adjust his glasses, pressing them up with his hand. They briefly glinted in the setting sunlight. "Where have you been?" Haseo demanded.

Ovan strode forward calmly. "Haseo. Always the reliable one. I knew I could count on you." A small hint of emotion slipped into his voice with the last sentence. Pride? Happiness? Haseo wasn't sure.

Haseo turned to face his old Guildmaster's back; he still wanted answers, and he'd get them. "When the Twilight Brigade broke up, why didn't you come then? What have you been doing the last six months!?"

Ovan's reply was out of his mouth as soon as Haseo had finished. "I was busy." He continued speaking, almost to himself. "It was such a small seed. I needed to find out what was growing inside, and there was only one way to find out. That's why...I decided to raise it."

"You raised it? What are you talking about, Ovan?" Haseo hated this the most about his old friend; he never lied, but he always spoke in riddles.

Ovan stopped walking, turning back to face Haseo. "I'm speaking figuratively," he said it as if it was obvious.

"When you suddenly disappeared, we all just… Why did you disappear like that?!" A pair of images came unbidden from Haseo's memory. A female Harvest Cleric in black and white standing in a cathedral, looking back at him; the same girl in the same place, but on the ground. Haseo looked down, his anger replaced with sadness. "After that, Shino…" He couldn't bear to finish telling his friend what had happened to her. How could he, when the three of them had been the closest in the Twilight Brigade? Haseo was suddenly very interested in the ground he was standing on.

A few tense moments passed before Ovan spoke again. "Haseo, do you want to know about Tri-Edge?"

Haseo's head shot up. "Wait, you know Tri-Edge?!"

Ovan glanced up at the sky, the light reflecting off of his sunglasses as he did so. "Six months now, and Shino hasn't come back to The World since Tri-Edge killed her. Meanwhile, the real-life Shino is lying in a coma, and no one seems to know the reason why. Tri-Edge..." Ovan blinked slowly before continuing. "He is not a normal PK."

"So you knew...about Shino?" Haseo was surprised by this. Had he possibly known the whole time? Before he could ask, Ovan spoke again.

"Yes, but that's all that I know. But, if you were able to find Tri-Edge, you might learn something about Shino's coma. You may also learn more about what really happened that day. And if you were somehow able to defeat Tri-Edge…"

Haseo spoke up, realizing that Ovan and he were thinking the same thing. "...then maybe Shino would come out of the coma." A spot of hope, after six months to the day of searching.

Ovan spoke again. "If my information is correct, he will be back today...at the scene of the crime."

"The scene of the crime? You mean-" Haseo's eyes widened in realization.

"**Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground**; the place where Shino was killed." Ovan confirmed his suspicions. _The Hulle Granz Cathedral!_ Haseo thought, clenching his fists as an almost mad grin split his face.

"Yes, finally...I'll get my chance! I swear I'll bring Shino back! I'll do it, Ovan!" Haseo was ecstatic. It was finally happening!

Ovan nodded, his tone taking on a reassuring quality as he spoke. "Yes. You and I, we're the only ones who could possibly bring her back."

"We're the only ones…" Haseo muttered, as Ovan began to turn away again. "Ovan?" Where was he going?

"I'll meet you at the Holy Ground," he reassured Haseo. "There are some things I must do." With that, Ovan was surrounded by rings of light, warping out of the Lost Ground. After a few minutes, Haseo followed after him.

* * *

**Δ Server Root Town: Eternal City Mac Anu**

"So that's what took you so long…" Kairi looked at Sora. The three of them had bid farewell to Sakaki and Atoli. Sora had told his two best friends that he needed to tell them something, so the three had switched to a private text chat mode. They could hear each other, but for all intents and purposes, they were just three players sitting silently by the docks at Mac Anu.

"Yeah. If Haseo hadn't shown up when he did, I would've been mincemeat. Just...don't go spreading that around. He's got a reputation to uphold." Despite his close call, Sora was feeling pretty good. Both of his closest friends were with him.

"So, have either of you found out anything?" Kurayami asked. It hadn't taken very long for the two of them to realize that he would not be responding to Riku online. He'd briefly explained to them that most people didn't use their real names online. As the two of them shook their heads, he sighed. "Well, I read something on the Rumors Board before I logged in. Someone said that they'd been adventuring in a field one night when he saw a figure appear out of nowhere. When told it was probably a monster called a Doppelganger, the player said that it wasn't, since it didn't chase after him. But get this; as he moved forward to get a closer look, the figure suddenly raised his hand, and a column of darkness appeared that he walked into. After that, the server suddenly crashed for a little while. That was about...three days ago, now. So it looks like we know what we're looking for."

"Did you get anything else? Like what this person looked like?" Kairi asked.

"No. It was too dark for him to make anything out, apparently." Kurayami shook his head.

"So, we're back to square one…" Kairi sighed.

"No we aren't!" Sora spoke, forgoing the private chat. Quietly he whispered to the two of them. "I mean, we definitely know there's something here now, so now we just need to find it! Oh, before I forget…" Sora dug around in his pockets, pulling out what looked like two business cards, and throwing them into the ocean, removing Asta and IYOTEN from his Member List. He then pulled out two more, handing one to Kairi and one to Kurayami. "Here, you two take these. They're my Member Address. So this way, we'll know when we're online!" He grinned. At least those two had taught him a few good things. As the two accepted them, they heard a voice speak up behind them.

"Woah! That's such a cool character design! How'd you get that? I mean, I didn't see any of those when I made mine." Turning around, the three of them saw a short, fat, and very pink Lei Tribe player admiring Sora's character.

"Oh, I won it in a contest. My name's Sora, by the way. These are my friends Kurayami and Kairi!" When Kurayami and Kairi just looked at him, he grinned.

Kairi cooed a little bit and walked forwards. "Aww, he's kinda cute."

The beast player blushed suddenly and began stammering. "O-oh. Th-Thank you, Miss Kairi." Suddenly, a new voice was heard, as a brown haired player in green ran up to them.

"Gaspard! You've really gotta stop running ahead like that!"

"Oh, sorry about that Silabus. I just say spotted him, and wanted to get a closer look! Doesn't he look awesome!" Gaspard pointed at Sora, who grinned and put his hands behind his head. He'd really lucked out with how his character looked.

"Woah, he is pretty cool." Silabus leaned forward with a hand on his chin, as if he was inspecting the three of them. "Say, are you three newbies?"

Kairi spoke up, frowning slightly. "Yeah, what's it to ya?"

"Oh, well, Gaspard and I are part of a Guild. See, we help out newbies to the game." Silabus pointed a thumb at himself, rather proud of his status as a newbie helper.

"Really? What's it called? How big is it?"

"Well, you see...the thing is...Canard is just the two of us right now. We used to have a third member, but he left it in our hands." Silabus deflated a little.

"It's just been the two of us ever since." Gaspard sighed, looking rather glum.

"Just the two of you? Well, why don't we join?" Sora offered. The duo looked up at him in surprise.

"Really? Just like that?" Silabus asked.

"Yup!" Sora smiled.

Kairi giggled beside him. "You always were someone who went out of his way to help others."

Kurayami put a hand to his chin. "My mind's telling me 'no'..." Silabus and Gaspard looked down again. "...but…" They looked back up. "...I'm more one to follow my heart. So count me in." He grinned at the bright looks the duo were giving them. Gaspard looked like he was about to cry tears of joy.

"I don't know what to say…" Silabus said.

"Nothing to be said! Just show us the way." Sora grinned.

"Here, follow us. Oh, and here. You'll need these Guild Keys to get into the Home." Silabus proceeded to give the three of them Canard Guild Keys, a smile on his face. "Welcome to Canard!" _Kuhn...I think I'm finally starting to fulfill your dream._

* * *

**Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground: Lost Ground Hulle Granz Cathedral**

The wind howled as Haseo appeared outside of the Hulle Granz Cathedral. The words of Ovan echoed in his head as he gazed upon the massive Gothic-styled architecture. _"He will be back today...at the scene of the crime."_

"Tri-Edge...is coming here!" His grin would have been truly terrifying, if there had been anyone around to see it. With that, he walked confidently to the large building, the old wooden doors opening with an aged squeak. He walked past the rows of empty pews to stand before an altar, a triangular scar that glowed an ominous red the only thing marring the the beautiful church scenery. Looking out the window in the back, two memories came to Haseo, from the last two time's he had been to this place.

* * *

_A younger and more optimistic Haseo stood in front of the altar, the scar that would appear later missing. He didn't wear the armor of a demon, but a simple black leather outfit that showed off his midriff. His grey hair was much shorter, and a lighter shade too. Behind him and to the right stood a girl slightly shorter than him, dressed in white and black, with a small black cape that looked similar to the wings of a bird or dragonfly. The girl, Shino, spoke to him suddenly. "They say there used to be a statue of a girl here."_

_Haseo turned from the empty pedestal to her. "A girl?"_

"_That's right. She was called 'Aura'." She began walking forward to the altar. She spoke almost...reverently of Aura, like she was a Goddess._

"_I wonder...why'd she disappear?" Haseo asked, genuine curiosity filling him._

"_Who knows." Shino turned to him, smiling sadly at the newest member of the Twilight Brigade. "Maybe she just lost her interest...lost hope for this world..."_

* * *

_He was running as fast as he could. Panic filled him. Ovan had gone missing, as had Shino. He had run to the first place he knew Shino would be; Ovan could have been anywhere, so it was pointless to try and look. Throwing open the doors, his eyes adjusted to the darkness just in time for him to see a triangular sign scarring the altar, blue flames...and Shino falling to the floor, with a shadowed figure holding a tri-bladed dagger._

"_Shino!" As Haseo burst into a run to retrieve her from the floor, the mysterious figure suddenly vanished. Grabbing her shoulders, he began to lift her torso up as he shouted at her. "Hang in there! Hey!" She didn't answer him, and a sound like static drew his attention from her face. To his horror, her right hand was flashing between it's normal look and a look of nothing but static. As her hand hit the ground, it suddenly burst apart into light, followed by her entire body beginning to flash with static as more particles faded into the air from her. When a player died in The World, it was _not _like this. "Shino…" Haseo shook his head, unwilling to believe this was happening. "No...No! This...This can't be happening!" He screamed to her, trying to wake her up, as tears filled his eyes._

_Her finger suddenly twitched, and her hand slowly rose to brush his cheek. "Don't cry…" her voice was weak, like she did not have the strength to speak. "Boys don't cry...do they?" She screamed as cracks appeared on her, as in the real world a spike of pain shot through the body of Shino Nanao._

"_Shino!" Haseo screamed her name again. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening!_

_Another pained breath escaped her as she spoke again. "O...van… Save...Ovan…"_

_Haseo was confused at her request. "Save...Ovan?"_

_Shino didn't answer him as she closed her eyes with a small smile, before another scream of pain came from her. Her body dispersed into light, and Haseo reached up, as if grabbing a particle would put her back together. When the light around him finally faded, and he looked down at the altar with the Tri-Edge Sign on it, he could only scream one thing as he burst into tears._

"_SHINOOOO!" The very earth itself seemed to tremble with his cry, and..._

* * *

A tone rang through the air, breaking Haseo from his memories. Haseo, not being musically inclined, did not recognize it as the musical note A in C Major. He turned, looking back and forth for the source of the noise. "What's that sound?" He turned around fully, looking for anything that could have made it, missing the sight of a tiny blue orb appearing from nowhere. A brief whine drew his attention to behind him as he leapt backwards, the brightly glowing sphere exploding outwards into a blue blaze.

Having dodged the blast, he saw a figure standing in the flames that proceeded to fling it's arms out, dissipating the azure flames he had appeared from. Haseo saw that the figure had a red outfit, the shade of which he was certain could not be obtained legally within The World. Blue-green hair rested under a cap of the same color, obscuring his eyes. He almost looked like he was sewn together. As the figure drew his twin blades, noticeably missing the accompanying flash of light that came with drawn weapons, Haseo saw that he had razor sharp teeth in a perpetual mockery of a smile. "Is that...Tri-Edge?" He wondered aloud.

The figure remained silent as he lowered his head slightly, crossed his arms, and unfolded the blades into it's sinister form, glaring back up at Haseo as blue sparks flew away from the blades. Memories flashed through Haseo's mind again. Shino and himself sitting atop the steps at Mac Anu, her throwing up a peace sign as he gazed at her. Her turning to him in the cathedral with a smile. Her lying on the ground of the cathedral, about to fade into light. Without a doubt in his mind, this was Tri-Edge. He poured all his sadness, all his strength, and all his rage into the next two words he roared as he drew his own twin blades.

"YOU BASTARRRD!" Haseo charged at Tri-Edge, swinging the first blow. To his shock, he found one of Tri-Edge's own blades blocking where he'd been aiming, parts of the PK surrounded by a light green aura. _What?! _Leaping backwards, Haseo charged again, swinging again and again and again, screaming the entire time. Tri-Edge blocked every strike, looking like he wasn't even trying to do so! Seeing that this wasn't working, Haseo jumped back and sheathed his twin blades, pulling out his chain-sword, the teeth on it already spinning as he charged forward with another roar. Yet try as he might, he couldn't break through Tri-Edge's guard. Seeming to have had enough, Tri-Edge sung his other blade at Haseo, sending the boy and his sword flying backwards with a pained sound. _I...I felt that!_ Ryou had enough time to think that as he landed face down on the tiled floor, his sword impaling itself beside him. With several pained grunts, he managed to get back on his feet as Tri-Edge approached, placing his weapons behind him as he did so. Ryou was running out of breath, which didn't make sense because it was just a game. He shouldn't have felt that hit from Tri-Edge...right?

"Damn!" He breathed out, glaring at Tri-Edge. "What the hell...what the hell are you?" He asked, looking down slightly. Tri-Edge didn't answer, just looking down at him with that smile. _This guy...killed Shino!_ Haseo thought, gritting his teeth in anger. "IT'S NOT OVER YET!" He roared again, as he drew his scythe, charging forward again.

Before it could even come close to hitting Tri-Edge, Haseo was blown backwards, the scyther flashing green briefly before shattering into fragments like glass. Haseo looked at his hands in shock as he realized that his weapon had been destroyed. As he looked up again, he was met with the sight of Tri-Edge's hand gripping his face. He had no time to think as Tri-Edge pushed forward, knocking Haseo back almost to the entrance with a blast of azure flames that he could swear he felt the heat of in real life! He heard Tri-Edge taking a few steps forward, looking up when they stopped to see he had raised his right arm above his head.

As the arm came down, a massive glowing bracelet appeared, three massive points rotating around it as it built up energy. As soon as the offshoots stopped spinning, the ball of light shot towards Haseo at blinding speed, multi-colored ribbons of something trailing behind it. As it hit him, Ryou screamed in agony as he felt nothing but the most extreme pain shooting through his entire body. It felt as though he was dissolving from the inside and outside at the same time!

When the attack ended, Haseo dropped onto his hands and knees, gasping for breath. As he looked back up at him, Haseo-no, Ryou-realized that the screen was beginning to glitch out. He was suddenly aware of his heart beating, faster and faster. Looking to his left through Haseo's eyes, he saw a single piece of his armor floating upwards and dissolving into tiny streams of code. He looked down in horror and saw his entire character was covered in _something _that seemed to be eating his armor! He let loose another scream of pain, before Haseo's armor exploded into pieces, dissolving as it left his body.

He was vaguely aware of the sound of his bedroom door being broken down in real life as both Haseo in-game and Ryou in real life fell backwards. His eyes widened slightly as the static on his M2D cleared for a brief second to reveal a figure approaching. _O...van?_ was the last conscious thought he had before the M2D, and his sight, faded to black.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Well, Haseo finally found Tri-Edge! But was it Tri-Edge who was at the cathedral that day?**

**Of course Tri-Edge was at the cathedral that day!**

**Anyway, here's something a little different than the usual omake. It's time for us to hit...The Forums!**

**Some of these will be for comedy purposes, and some of these will not.**

**This particular thread will be going in to the General Forum. What's it about? Well, Kairi was wearing what amounted to a version of BlackRose's outfit, so...yeah.**

**Also, I'm not a member of Rooster Teeth...**

* * *

**Topic: That hot newbie**

**Tucker**

Oh, man. Did you guys see that hot chick walking around Mac Anu today? I'd have gone up to her and worked the moves on her, but _someone_ had to go and be an idiot again. Next time I see her, I am totally gonna party up with her and show her a good time. Bow chicka bow wow!

* * *

**I know right?**

**Church**

Man, I wish my girlfriend wore stuff like that! If she were I wousljdhnhajkgfbnakgbjagfbjakb;

* * *

**Sorry about that**

**Tex**

Had to smash my idiot boyfriend's head against the keyboard a few times. There's not a chance in hell I'd be caught walking around like that.

* * *

**Hey, no fair**

**Grif**

I saw her first! I called dibs.

* * *

**Um**

**Simmons**

Hate to break it to ya, Grif, but you don't just get to call "dibs" on a woman. She'd probably just kick you between the legs if she heard you say that.

* * *

**Who says it's a "she"?**

**Donut**

I mean, for all we know, that could be a guy behind "her"! I've heard about people doing that before. One time, a buddy of mine got PKed by this guy who was playing as a girl. Turns out it was a trick!

* * *

**Shut up, Donut**

**Grif**

You're a male Steam Gunner with pink armor.

* * *

**Yeah, shut up.**

**Simmons**

Seriously, what guy makes their armor PINK?

* * *

**IT'S NOT PINK!**

**Donut**

IT'S LIGHTISH RED! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU GUYS?

* * *

**Blarg!**

**Crunch-bite**

Blar-Blarg! Blarg honk honk, blarg blarg honk!

* * *

**I agree with Crunch-bite**

**Caboose**

Being a woman, we should go to her gently so as not to scare her. Offer her gifts. Learn her habits. Compliment her, but not too much.

Also, she has a boyfriend.

* * *

**Is the world ending?**

**Church**

Did...Did Caboose just give good advice that was on topic and shatter our hopes and dreams at the same time?

* * *

**Alright Ladies...**

**Sarge**

Given the events I have witnessed thus far, I believe that there is only one course of action the Rooster Teeth Guild can take...

* * *

**I'm listening.**

**Sister**

What's the plan, Sarge?

* * *

**To prevent certain doom...**

**Sarge**

In order to stop the end of everything we know and love, we must all take turns killing Grif! In the most humiliating and painful ways possible! Starting with me!

* * *

**This plan...**

**Simmons**

I like this plan, Sarge. It's probably the best one you've come up with yet!

* * *

**Hmm...**

**Tex**

Do I get to kick him in the nuts again?

* * *

**...**

**Grif**

I hate you all.


	7. Chapter 6: Trial and Truth

**Author's Notes: Sorry this took so long to get up! I actually had it finished for quite some time, but I had a few problems with my Internet, and then the Destiny Beta happened, so...**

**Anyway, I'm so sorry that this took so long to get up! I'll start working on the next chapter soon, promise!**

**Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and .hack aren't mine, blah blah blah.**

* * *

The first time Sora had heard Ryou yelling about something, he tried to ignore it. But when he heard him screaming in pain, he had immediately shut his computer off and rushed towards Ryou's room. He had tried to turn the knob, only to find that the door was locked. He was about to summon his Keyblade when he remembered the words of Yen Sid. _"You must not summon the Keyblade, for if any of you do so in the outer layer of this world, then the Heartless shall come to it."_

Thinking fast, he grabbed the nearest heavy object he could find, a nearby desk lamp, and smashed it down on the handle repeatedly. It took a few tries, but he finally managed to knock the handle off the door, exposing the lock. He spent a couple seconds fiddling with the mechanisms when he heard Ryou scream again. Eventually Sora opted to just break the door down. It took him two tries, but after a running start he'd managed to knock the door in to be welcomed to the sight of Ryou on the ground, his computer screen saying something about "reformatting".

Ignoring the screen, Sora had dragged Ryou to his bed after realizing he was unconscious. He cast a weak Cure spell on him, thankful that while the Keyblade granted him access to magic, he didn't have to have it out to use said magic all the time; it was more like an object that would bolster his spells anyway. That had been almost 4 hours ago. Sora had managed to get some light sleep in a chair he'd pulled up. He was roused from his slumber at the sound of the bed's occupant groaning as he came to. "You really had me worried there, Ryou. I'm glad you're okay."

"What...happened? And why the hell are you in my room?" Ryou gave Sora a glare as he sat up.

"You were screaming in pain. I...kinda broke your door trying to get in to see what was wrong. I'll find someway to fix it." Sora rubbed the back of his spiky hair, chuckling nervously. "Oh, what happened? I saw you on the ground with an M2D. I didn't know that you played The World too, Ryou!"

Surprisingly, Ryou didn't look as upset as Sora thought he would be over the door. "It's fine. I'll replace it later." A let out a sigh. "Yeah, I...play as a character called Haseo. You might have heard of him." He smirked at the gobsmacked expression on Sora's face at the news. Before he could relish it any further, Ryou's eyes suddenly widened as he remembered the events from earlier today.

Ovan telling him about Tri-Edge. Him fighting Tri-Edge. And then…he couldn't remember. But why?

He was interrupted by the sound of his computer starting up again. Slowly walking over to it, he saw the screen flicker with a hint of static before it settled to the default background. Placing his M2D on his head, Ryou took a seat at his computer, feeling the need to log in to The World. Before he could do so, a pop-up suddenly appeared on screen, with only two words: **"Reboot Complete."**

"Huh? What the-" The pop-up disappeared, only for another one to appear: "**Continuing process…" **it said, before disappearing as well. Ryou was growing frustrated with his lack of memory. He remembered everything up until he'd fought Tri-Edge, but why couldn't he remember afterwards?! A third pop-up appeared, and he paled at the sight of those three words: **"System reformatting complete." **"Huh? I...I don't remember doing that. Did you do this?!" He threw an accusatory glare at Sora, who raised his hands above his head.

"All I did was drag you to the bed and make sure you were okay. The only thing I touched was the chair. I...guess I'll just leave you be, for now." With that, Sora left Haseo's room. He had logged out rather suddenly, so he was pretty sure that Riku and Kairi were a little worried. They might have logged out too, so he'd send them both e-mails to let them know he was alright. Still, maybe he'd pay his two newest friends a visit in-game...

* * *

Ryou watched Sora leave the room, taking a breath to calm himself. Sora wasn't the kind of person who would do something like that. He didn't know why he was so sure of that, but it was just the vibe that Sora gave off; he wasn't a malicious person. Then the meaning behind the message hit him. "Reformatted?! What's going on? What about my e-mails?" Picking up the controller, he scrolled the menu over to the Mail Station and his inbox, only for another message to show up over the empty inbox: **"Mail data not found."**

"What the hell?! I would never delete these! They're all...gone? Even the e-mails I got from Shino?" He numbly backed out to the main menu as his mind tried to grasp the truth that was before him, but that he still couldn't believe. "Everything's been reformatted?" He thought aloud, his ire increasing by the second. "What the hell is going on?!" Before he could ponder it any further, yet another notification popped up, this time to inform him that he had one new e-mail. _An e-mail? Fine, let's take a look._ He thought, going back into the Mail Station. To his surprise, it wasn't junk mail. _Ovan?!_ He narrowed his eyes slightly as he briefly checked to make sure that Sora wasn't around. Seeing that he was currently walking back to his own room with a piece of toast in his hand, Ryou went back to his computer and opened up the message.

* * *

**Sender: Ovan**

**Subject: Choices**

There are two paths before you.

One of these will lead to safety and shame. It is a path where you give up The World and never log in again. The other path leads to peril and pride. It is a path where you continue The World, and resume your search for the truth.

Let me be blunt. The latter path is tortuous and will threaten both your mind and body. Once you have chosen it, there will be no turning back.

If you still choose to walk this path, then there will come a time when you and I will meet once again in The World.

When the time comes I will once again say this to you:

"Welcome to The World."

* * *

_Trial and truth...Whether or not I should quit The World? You should know better, Ovan! I'm gonna go back to The World! And then...I'm gonna get Shino back, no matter what! _With his confidence regained and a smirk on his face, Ryou backed out of the Mail Station and logged in once more to The World.

* * *

**Δ Root Town: Eternal City Mac Anu**

Given how early in the morning it was in real life, the dome housing the Chaos Gate in Mac Anu was devoid of players as Haseo warped in. He managed to take a few steps forward before realizing something was wrong. _Huh? What's going on? Why is my equipment different? _Looking at his hands, he was shocked to see that they were covered in black leather gloves, instead of his usual armor. Further inspection of his character revealed that he wasn't wearing any heavy armor at all! Black leather pants with a black top that seemed to be made of belts that didn't come close to covering his midriff or the tattoo of two red serpentine dragons clashing. His shoulders were bare as well, red Wave tattoos shown off there as well.

Images flashed through his head as he attack Tri-Edge had hit him with. Suddenly nervous, he opened his in-game menu. Surely he was still Level 133, like when he'd faced Tri-Edge, right? _What the-I'm back at Level 1?! What about my items?! _Checking that submenu, he saw that he only had a couple hundred GP and a few measly Health Drinks; none of the thousands of GP or the powerful recovery items to be seen. _My Member List?! _Checking that as well, he saw that it was even worse than his items; completely empty. All the friends he had made...gone. _M-my equipment?! _That wasn't much better. He only had a basic pair of twin blades and some beginner armor. Nothing else.

"Heh heh heh...Gone. It's all gone. My whole character has been completely reformatted." Just then, two female players entered the dome, gossiping with each other.

"Hey, did you see that guy just now?" one asked.

"With the really weird arm?" the other chuckled.

"Yeah!"

_Arm?_ Haseo thought for a brief moment. Memories of his very first day in The World flashed through his mind; the day he had been saved by Ovan. _Could they have been talking about him? He would know something about this…_

He ran out, catching a brief glimpse of Ovan leaving the main plaza and heading towards the harbor. When he finally made it to the harbor, he saw him disappearing around the corner once again, just ahead of him. _Damn, there's so many places he could go from there! Where could he…_ He suddenly overheard two players talking, a man and a woman.

"Oh, man! Did you see that guy? He was so hot!" the woman gushed.

"Really? You're into guys like that? I thought he was kinda creepy…" the man dead-panned. Haseo suppressed a chuckle. Ovan always had that effect on people, so they had to be talking about him.

"Hey, where'd he go?! I wanted to go talk to him," the girl whined.

"Uhh, I think he down that alley. Don't expect me to follow you if you chase after him," the man chuckled.

Haseo bound forward, down the steps leading to the alley, around the corner...and promptly hid back behind the wall at the trio he saw at the far end. _Damn! It's those player killers! _He pressed his body against the wall, hoping they hadn't seen him. He seemed to catch a lucky break for the first time that day, for they had not.

"Heh, it's not much of a challenge when they're so...pathetically weak," the woman, Bordeaux scoffed.

"Yeaaah, I know what you mean! Fighting those noobs is making us all rusty," the pale one, Negimaru, sneered. Grein, as always, remained silent.

"That Rogue that we fought the last time...he really wasn't that bad!" Was that...admiration that Haseo heard in her voice?

"Um, you mean we're going after him next?" Negimaru sounded nervous. He didn't want to get blasted into a mountain again.

"Hell yeah! And that other kid too!" Bordeaux paused. "There is no way in hell...I can back down after what happened last time!"

"Y-yes, ma'am," Negimaru cowered. Grein was still silent, but he seemed to be paying more attention to Bordeaux.

Haseo frowned at this information. Looks like he'd have to be more careful. _Wait. What the hell am I hiding for? Why do I have to hide from bastards like them? It's pathetic. _Another part of his mind reminded him that he wasn't a Level 133 force of nature anymore. With that displeasing thought in mind, he snuck out of the alley and back into the harbor. _What the hell's going on?!_ He stood on the path in the harbor, trying not to scream in frustration. This day was just awful. His character had been reformatted, his e-mails were gone, and Ovan was nowhere to be seen! At least it couldn't get any worse.

Suddenly, a fat pink beast player ran into him with a startled cry. He was so short that it barely made Haseo flinch, while the beast player was sent flying onto his back, flailing around on the ground rather comically as he tried to right himself. A brown-haired player about Haseo's height ran up behind the beast player, offering him a hand. "Gaspard! Are you okay?"

Taking the offered hand, Gaspard managed to pick himself up. "Huh? W-What happened?"

The other player looked at Haseo, a little worried. "Are you okay?" Haseo wasn't quite sure what to think. Didn't these two know that under normal circumstances, you couldn't hurt people in Root Towns?

"Uh, yeah."

The brown haired boy smiled. "Hey, are you a new player?"

"You're a...noob? Oh. Heh, hey, I'm sorry. I guess I must have scared you, huh?" Gaspard chuckled goofily.

Haseo had seen Chim Chims scarier than this beast player, a scowl crossing his face. "Hell no! I'm not a noob! I'm the Terror of Death." That would probably send them scurrying away.

"Terror...of...what?" Gaspard tilted his head in confusion.

The brunette was surprised. "What? Wait, are you talking about the famous PKK, Haseo?"

"Ooooh, you're a player-killer killer! I knew I'd heard about him somewhere before, Silabus. But...I'm pretty sure the player's name was 'Haseyo'." The pink beast put a hand to his chin in thought.

"Are you sure?" Silabus turned to Gaspard, giving him a questioning look. Haseo's eye twitched at the butchering of his name.

"Definitely, yup!" Gaspard nodded his head.

"Hey, look. It's me. I'm the real PKK Haseo!" His proclamation was met with Gaspard bursting into giggles.

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to gain more levels before you can say anything like that," Silabus chuckled.

"W-What! Hey!" Haseo scowled even harder.

"If you're a noob, we'll be happy to teach you the basics of this game," Silabus smiled, oblivious to Haseo's ire.

"Actually, Silabus and I are part of the noob-support guild called Canard. We're actually pretty famous, you know!" Gaspard explained.

"Noob...support guild?" In all his time playing, Haseo had honestly never even heard of a noob-support guild, nor this 'Canard'.

Before any of them could continue speaking, another player came running up to them. "Hey, come on you guys! Don't leave me in the dust like that!" Despite his words, Sora was laughing.

Haseo never thought he'd be so happy to see Sora. "Hey! Tell these two that you know me, that I'm really the Terror of Death, Haseo."

"Huh? Sora, do you know this player?" Silabus asked their newest guild members.

"Hmm." Sora examined him. He knew for a fact that this was indeed the PKK Haseo, but that wasn't gonna stop him from teasing him a bit. After all, Haseo had told him to not breathe a word about him being saved by him online. Riku and Kairi didn't really count, because he knew them offline too. Sora took a deep, dramatic breath and spoke. "Nope! Can't say I do, guys." Haseo was pretty sure that, were it capable of doing so, his jaw would have shot through the ground. "Say Silabus, why don't we show this newbie the ropes? I mean, I'm pretty sure he's got the more basic functions down, like Member Addresses and stuff, but he's probably never gotten into combat before."

The grin on Sora's face pissed Haseo off to no end, because he knew that Sora was screwing with him on purpose. Despite this, he accepted the Member Addresses of the three of them. As the three of them talked with each other, Haseo mentally debated on the course of action he should take. _Oh man, it's just my luck to get mixed up with a bunch of weirdos. I even lost sight of Ovan. Anyway, right now I've gotta level back up to where I was before…back to becoming the Terror of Death. Well, I guess I'll just hang out with them for a little while longer._

"Hello? Did you get all of that?" Gaspard asked him, breaking him from his revery.

"Yeah, I was listening," Haseo lied.

"You were? Really?" Sora sounded skeptical, but he still had that infuriating smile on his face.

"Yes, really. Anyway, come on." The three looked at him. "You're gonna teach me the basics, right? So let's hurry up and get going to this area."

"Alright! But before we get going, you've got to smile!" Sora proclaimed.

"Smile?" Haseo looked at Sora strangely. Silabus and Gaspard gave him a similar, confusion on their faces.

"That's right! No frowning, and no sad faces! This boat runs on happy faces!" Sora affirmed.

"...Happy?" Haseo looked down at the ground, frowning slightly. What did he even have to be happy about right now? Tri-Edge had de-leveled him back to one, Bordeaux and her cronies were going to be stalking him no doubt, Ovan was missing _as usual_, and Shino was still in her coma!

_Better just get this over with…_ he thought with a sigh. Looking up, he gave Sora what had to be the biggest, dumbest grin he could force onto his face. He held it for as long as he dared, given that some people were starting to stare. Silabus and Gaspard burst into laughter, but Sora actually looked contemplative. Why was that?

"Hmm… It'll do for now," Sora said, a small smile on his face. "Anyway, off to the Chaos Gate, and **Δ Peaceful Leading Freedom**!" With that, he enthusiastically pumped his fist into the air and took off running.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Aaaand there we are.**

**I'm actually considering an idea I had recently. I'd like to hear from you all, though, be it in a review or in a private message.**

**How interested would you guys be in a side-story tie-in for this fic? It would focus on what Mickey and Yen Sid are doing while our heroes are goofing off-I mean-searching for answers in The World. It may also provide some clues of what is to come later on in this fic...**


	8. Chapter 7: Sinister Shadows

**Author's Note: First of all, a thousand apologies for keeping you all waiting! To keep a long story short, my Internet utterly crapped out on me for the last month. I write each chapter in Google Docs, because I don't have Microsoft Word installed on my Windows partition. I was completely unable to watch any of the cutscenes/Let's Plays for .hack/G.U. Volume 1, and I couldn't even write in Google Docs! Hopefully, something like that will never happen again! On the plus side, all this time being unable to write has given me ample opportunity to flesh out the idea of where I want these fics to go.**

**Yes, you read that correctly. This is only Volume 1 of Reconnect. How many Volumes will I have? Well, that's for me to know, and for you to wait and see! Now then, this chapter shall re-introduce some characters, introduce another, and hint at the make-up of one side in this conflict that hasn't been touched upon yet: Maleficent's forces. Now, how do you make a character who has suffered from some serious Villain Decay a force to be reckoned with once again?**

**Simple: have her Legion of Doom filled with Dangerously Genre Savvy villains to make up for Pete's utter incompetence!**

**Before I forget, I haven't played tennis before, unless you count Wii Sports. So forgive me if I screw up the rules on how tennis works.**

* * *

**Tokyo University Tennis Courts**

Riku would be lying if he said he wasn't a little nervous. True, it was just a practice game, but he was still going up against Akira Hayami. It didn't help that much that he had, for all intents and purposes, looked up the basic rules of tennis the night before. As far as he could tell, he just had to hit the ball in such a way that his opponent wouldn't be able to hit it back four times. Simple enough. Except that, from what he'd heard, Hayami was something of a tennis protege. He knew he had no chance of even beating her. Still, that wasn't the reason why he'd requested to practice against her. He had to confirm something Yen Sid had told him.

"About time you showed up!" Riku blinked, looking across the court at the brunette. She had a superior grin on her face. This was her turf, so to speak.

"You say that as if I was late for something. Obviously, I'm not." He crossed his arms, smirking cockily at her. Riku took note that, outside of the court, Daichi was watching, a soccer ball tucked under his arm. _Perfect. Two birds with one stone, _he thought.

Akira narrowed her eyes at the boy, frowning slightly. She knew he'd looked familiar. He was that punk who just transferred here recently. Well, now was as good a time as any to knock him down a few pegs. "You ready to play or what, kid?"

'_Kid'? You're not _that _much older than me…_ Riku frowned, but it quickly shifted back into that cocky smirk. Time to borrow a line from a friend back home. "Pfft. Playing is for kids." He bounced the tennis ball once, before tossing it across to her, giving her the opportunity to serve. "This is serious!"

Akira felt her respect for this punk go up just a little bit...not that she'd ever let him know that. "Don't expect me to go easy on you just because you're younger than me."

Thwack!

"Wouldn't have it any other way!" Jump to the left, hit it back.

Thwack!

Akira was already at the ball, hitting it to Riku's right. He wasn't nearly fast enough to stop it in time. "Fifteen-love." She took a quick swig from her water bottle before tossing the ball over to his side, to let him serve.

Thwack! Thwack!

Riku didn't even see the ball come back before he heard her call out "Thirty-love." Light, she was just as good as people said she was! She wasn't even breaking a sweat.

Another thwack, and Akira was calling out yet again. "Game point." Riku shook his head, accepting the ball and tossing it idly up and down in his hand.

"Say, you ever play a game called 'The World'?" A gentle serve, keep the pace slow and the conversation flowing.

"If you're talking about the new one, I haven't played that one. I played the older version." Another thwack, this one gentler than the fierce ones before.

_Good, I've gotten her talking. Now…_ "I just started playing R:2 recently. Been hearing some pretty weird rumors." Not too far from her, but not too close either.

Thwack!

"Weird in what way?" She almost mirrored his serve; not too close or too far from him. To Riku, she was clearly interested in the topic.

Thwack!

_Time to see if Lea's information is right, _he thought grimly. "Weird in the sense that players are falling into comas," he said, loud enough so that Daichi would hear it too. Return to her, in a way that it would be child's play for her to hit back for the win.

Thwack!

"Fifteen-forty," he said grimly. She'd frozen up, the ball sailing right past her. Daichi's head had snapped to look at him so fast that he had to have given himself whiplash. Riku didn't even make a move to return the serve that gave Akira the win. He'd gotten exactly what he'd came for. "If you wish to discover the truth, seek out Yata, of the Guild Raven. He should know more." Riku turned and began to walk off. Was he forgetting something? Oh, yeah!

"If you're worried about your old character data, don't be. It's been updated for Revision 2...BlackRose. Kite's too." He'd shown them a glimpse of the rabbit. Now it was up to them if they were going to chase it down the hole.

* * *

**Δ Peaceful Leading Freedom**

"Attention! Bringing one noob to the dungeon! Repeat, bringing one noob to the dungeon!"

Haseo's eye twitched as Sora stifled a laugh at Gaspard's proclamation. "I told you that I'm _not_ a noob!" Haseo growled.

"I know, I know, you're _really_ the Terror of Death, right?" Silabus sighed, crossing his arms.

"I can understand you wanting to role-play something like that, but I'm not really sure if you should do 'Terror of Death', y'know?" Gaspard stated.

Haseo's jaw nearly dropped as Sora snorted at Gaspard's words. _R-Role-playing?! I wouldn't be caught dead doing something like that!_

"Player Killers are going to come after you and it'll definitely be rough for you…" Gaspard continued, his tone hinting that he'd had issues with PKs before. Haseo didn't care about that right now.

"Hey! Just shut up and listen!"

* * *

"So, you're saying you're really the PKK Haseo, the Terror of Death." Silabus said, once Haseo had finished his explanation. "And when you logged in, your level went down from 133 to...1?"

"No way. I've never heard of a bug quite like that. Wow." Gaspard was shocked.

This was the first time that Sora had heard this part of the story from Haseo. From what Sora understood, the level cap was 150 in this game. To go from nearly there, back to the beginning…it was like when Sora had woken up, before the start of his second journey. He could certainly sympathize with Haseo.

"I'm not lying!" Haseo crossed his arms at his proclamation, as if he was daring them to disagree with him.

Sora nodded. "I believe him."

"Oookay, but, still…"

Silabus chuckled. "Gaspard, Sora, that's what he's role-playing."

"Ohhh, now I get it. Heh, that's some really complicated character background." Gaspard nodded in understanding.

Haseo palmed his face, letting out an exasperated groan. "It's _not_ role-playing!"

"Don't be embarrassed." Silabus smiled kindly. "We'll accept your character concept."

"Just relax, and come with us!" Gaspard placed his hands on his hips, in a pose that he was sure looked heroic.

"Will you please _listen_ to me, already?!" That was about as close to begging that Haseo got, but to no avail, as the two had already begun heading off. Haseo begrudgingly went after them, with Sora right behind him.

"For what it's worth, I believe you. I mean...I was there, after all." Sora whispered to Haseo.

"Shut. Up. You could have told them that…" Haseo growled back.

"Do you really think they would have believed me if I had?" Sora shrugged. "Just go with it. It's not _that_ bad."

* * *

Oh, how wrong Sora was. Haseo had made it to the next level of the dungeon, and his patience was at it's end. He knew about basic combat, dammit. He knew about the Skill Trigger, dammit. He _knew_ about Rengekis, dammit!

"Hey, Haseo."

_Silabus, I swear to God, if this is something I've heard already…_

"Do you know about Awakening?"

The retort died before it had even left Haseo's lips. "...No, I don't," he admitted.

"See? I _knew_ that you were a noob!" Gaspard smiled.

"H-Hey!" Haseo tried to sound irritated, but he was pretty sure he just came across as tired.

"Now, now, Haseo! We'll tell you all about them, so don't scowl!" Silabus smiled.

"Yeah! No scowling! This Guild runs on happy faces!" Sora pumped his fist in the air enthusiastically. "Although...I've never heard of this either."

Haseo sighed, looking down at the ground of the cave dungeon. _Oh, well. Might as well…_ "Yeah." He looked back up to the Canard trio, forcing a smile onto his face. "So, what is this Awakening thing you were talking about?"

"Well, it's a special attack that you can do together with your party members." Silabus explained. There were some monsters wandering aimlessly nearby; perfect timing. "Do you wanna give it a shot? It's a lot easier to understand it if you're in battle."

"Yeah, that sounds good. Let's do it! I'm gonna do my best!" Gaspard looked excited. "What about you, Sora?"

"Actually...I don't think I can do Awakenings." Sora replied. At the incredulous looks the others gave him, he continued. "I just browsed through my options menu, and I don't see an option for Awakenings…" He shrugged, before putting his hands behind his head and grinning. "I guess it's a trade-off, given that I've got a Unique Job. So, I'll just have to sit this one out. Good luck, Haseo!"

"Hey, I haven't agreed-"

Silabus didn't give Haseo a chance to finish. "All right then! Let's go encounter some enemies!"

As the three ran off, Sora spent some time double checking his menu. Yup, no sub-menu for Awakenings. Instead, there was something else that was grayed out, the text illegible on it. It was definitely a shorter word than "Awakening", however. "Hmm, what could it be?" he mumbled aloud.

* * *

**Tokyo University Co-Ed Dorms**

"Akira, you sure he wasn't just saying that to psyche you out?" Daichi was worried. Ever since that practice game against Riku earlier that day, Akira had been subdued, somber even. She was a far cry from the girl he'd fallen in love with, and it worried him.

"Daichi, he knew our old usernames. And...he somehow knew that coma victims from The World would be enough to throw me off my game. What if he's right? What if those rumors are true? What if...What if they're back again? Could you really sit and do nothing if that was the case?" Akira looked at her fiance, a determined look in her eyes. Daichi knew that look; whether he liked it or not, she'd make her own decision. He could either stand beside her or not, but she would be going back to The World.

Before Daichi could reply, there was a knock at their door, followed shortly by the sound of footsteps walking away. Going and opening the door, he saw that there was a package sitting on the floor, the logo for CC Corp displayed prominently atop it. He chuckled as he brought it in, opening it up. "I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I?"

Fortunately, the installation of the game didn't take very long at all; the wonders of modern technology. Their log-in information was still secure, but they changed their passwords, just in case. With a resolute nod to each other, the two founding members of the legendary dothackers returned to The World. "I wonder if anyone else is still playing," Daichi wondered aloud, flexing his hands experimentally. He vaguely remembered seeing a forum post years ago about a controller that you wore like a glove. These must've been them.

"Only one way to find out!" Akira grinned, slipping the FMD over her eyes and tightening her hands into fists. If these rumors were just that, rumors, then it might still be fun to play every once in a while. But if it was like seven years ago…. Only time would tell.

* * *

**Δ Server Root Town: Eternal City Mac Anu**

The sound of running water met the ears of the two R:1 veterans as they logged into The World for the first time in seven years. The few players there didn't even spare them a second glance as they appeared, even though they were both level 30 despite apparently logging in for the first time. "Wow, everything looks so…" Kite's words died in his throat, a blush crossing his face as his roaming eyes locked onto his fiance's PC next to him.

"W-What?! What're you looking at?!" Apparently, Kite wasn't the only one that had forgotten how...risque BlackRose's character had looked, much to the latter's chagrin. With the updated graphics, she looked even more exotic to the Twin Blade. The Heavy Blade-no, wait they're called 'Edge Punishers' now-leaned down to his eye level, poking a finger into his chest as she pouted, gripping the handle of the large zweihander strapped to her back. Kite idly noted that her character seemed a bit taller, but that may have just been his imagination. "Listen, in case you haven't noticed, you're being very rude! It's impolite to stare like that! It's just like the real world."

The two of them blinked, before they both started giggling, drawing a few stares as they quickly erupted into full-blown laughter. "Haha! Just like old times, huh?" Kite laughed, rubbing his nose.

"It sure is. I gotta say, it feels good to be the taller one again." BlackRose smirked, patting the much shorter Twin Blade on the head.

Kite pouted, before he began walking forward. "Come on. Let's get going," he mumbled. Opening the double doors leading out of the dome, Kite's breath caught in his throat as he took in the sight of the eternal sunset of Mac Anu. "Wow…"

"'Wow' is right…" BlackRose had stopped beside him, taking in the sight of the sprawling city before them. "Hey, um...how are we supposed to find this 'Raven' Guild? Everything's...different."

"You are Kite and BlackRose, yes? I believe I may be of some assistance, kupo." The two of them looked around for the deep voice that had addressed them. "Down here, kupo!" The duo turned their gazes downward to see a small form bobbing in the air at the bottom of the steps. Donned in a black cloak that fit it's diminutive size, with tiny purple wings occasionally fluttering behind it, white fur, and a large pink nose and pom-pom, the strange creature nodded it's head, the deep voice coming forth the figure once more. "I see that you have decided to come, kupo. Let me be the first to say 'Welcome back to The World.' I'm sure you have many questions, kupo, but save them for later, kupo. Yata would speak with you soon, kupo. Follow me to the Mercenary District, kupo."

With that, the strange creature floated over to the green teleport pad nearby. "Wait!" BlackRose called out. "Who are you?"

The creature paused, it's tone becoming nostalgic. "I have been called many things. A prophet. A sage. A mured moogle. Truthfully, I am a simple scholar, kupo. History often repeats itself. One simply need to look for the patterns, kupo." The moogle, for that was what he was, turned to face them, inclining his head slightly as he spoke in a voice that commanded respect, despite his small size. "I am Cid of the Lufaine, and we have much work to do to ensure the safety of this world."

* * *

**Δ Peaceful Leading Freedom**

Haseo had to admit, he was having a bit of fun. He'd forgotten what it was like, to go dungeon-crawling with other players. He was taking the lead, and had already gotten to level 3. It would be slow going, but maybe he'd be able to get back to where he was before, so he could finally take on Tri-Edge. Speaking of which, maybe they knew something about him? "Hey, um, do you guys know anything about...Tri-Edge?"

"Tri-Edge?" Gaspard tilted his head. "No. What's that? Some kind of...event monster or something?"

_Figures. No point getting mad at them about it. They just play this game for fun._ Haseo turned to face them. "It's the screenname of a PK."

Silabus rubbed the back of his head. "Never heard of him."

"Me neither." Gaspard looked down, a bit sad that he couldn't be of help.

"Doesn't ring any bells." Sora shrugged.

"Well, that's...fine. Let's keep going." Haseo sighed, heading to the next Steam Door. The Beast Statue should be right behind it.

Haseo's guess was spot-on, as soon after the four players stepped through, the background music changed from the eerie cave dungeon theme to the serene theme associated with Beast Statues.

"This is a statue of Folset, the God of Law in The World's backstory." Silabus explained. "But we just call it the Beast Statue."

"And there is the treasure offering. See?" Gaspard pointed. "Go on and open it, Haseo!"

He nodded, walking up and kicking the chest to open it. However, instead of the chest simply opening up...nothing happened. "What the…?" Haseo kicked it again. Nope, still nothing. The chest didn't even budge. It was then that he noticed that there was a rather large padlock on the chest. "It's...locked."

"Locked? You sure it's not just bugged?" Gaspard frowned.

"Relax, guys." Sora chuckled. "I've got this." Summoning forth the Kingdom Key, Sora walked forward and tapped the top of the chest twice, the padlock clattering to the ground as the chest was unlocked. Sora's eyes widened as he read the pop-up, before a wide grin split his face as the Beast Statue faded into light.

"So? What did you-" Haseo was suddenly interrupted by a voice behind him that caused his eyes to widen.

"Hey, little Haseo. Been a while, huh?"

The four of them turned to see Bordeaux and Negimaru sneering at them, with Grein looking on impassively.

"They're-they're from Kestrel!" Silabus stammered, fear slipping into his voice.

Gaspard looked confused. "Huh? Wha? Hey, who are these guys?"

"Famous Player Killers!" Silabus murmured, glancing around to look for an escape.

_What the?! Not now…_ Haseo thought. Of course, _now_ of all times they had to show up. He was level 3, Silabus and Gaspard were about 5, and Sora was about 8. Each one of them had to be at least level 10.

"Well, well. Look's like you haven't been keeping up since the last time we met," Bordeaux stalked towards them, tapping her sword against her hand in anticipation. "It took me a little while to recognize that you were really the Terror of Death," she chuckled unpleasantly.

"What?! He's real?" Silabus looked over his shoulder at Haseo, shocked.

"You're really, _really _the Terror of Death?" Gaspard sounded, fittingly enough, terrified.

"How amazing. I mean, what a coincidence running into you here! I tell you, it _has _to be destiny!" Bordeaux shifted into her stance, ready to pounce.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Haseo asked, trying to feign ignorance.

"Yeah, right, moron! Gimme a break. Someone sent me an anonymous email," Bordeaux sneered. "So I decided to come and have some fun. Now, what should we play?" She smiled cruelly, a manic gleam in her eyes as she pointed her sword at Haseo. "Well for starters, how 'bout I 'love' you..._to death_!"

Gaspard made an attempt to be the peace-maker. "I-I don't really know what's going on, but p-p-please, no violen-Guh!" Bordeaux swung out, KOing the Shadow Warlock in one hit.

"Gaspard!" Silbaus stared in horror.

"He got in my way," Bordeaux said, like she was discussing the weather. She walked forwards, boxing Haseo against the cliff. There was nowhere for him to run.

A brief sound of static hit Haseo's ears, and he found himself falling to his knees and clutching his side, both online and offline. _Ah, hell. What is this?! _His heart rate was speeding up. _Just what the hell is going on here?! What's happening?! Gaspard is down, Silabus is too weak to fight them, and Sora's...where's Sora? _Before he could continue that train of thought, a spike of pain shot through his head. He grit his teeth a groaned. He would not scream, dammit! Not for these damn PKs! He was vaguely aware of Silabus shouting at him, telling him to run. But where the hell was Sora?! He'd been right behind him a few seconds ago. Had he ditched him?

"Are you scared? Man, I just_ love_ that expression. You know what I mean? God, there is _nothing_ like PK."

"Oh yeah? Well I bet you've never seen anything like _this_ before!" Every turned to find that Sora had someone ended up behind all of them, and was running right into the center of the Kestrel trio.

"Sora, what are you-" Silabus never got to answer as Sora shouted out three words, followed by everyone becoming blinded by a flash of light.

"Give me Strength!"

* * *

**The World That Never Was**

The once pristine, white halls of the Castle That Never Was overflowed with massive, black, thorny roots. The artificial Kingdom Hearts had been deemed a lost cause; the massive heart-shaped moon was nearly gone, the hearts flowing down from it barely a trickle now.

"Well, that was a colossal waste of time and effort. What time we could have spent building up our forces, we wasted trying to salvage the artificial Kingdom Hearts on a whim," a cold, smooth voice stated.

"Oh, puh-lease! Quit your whining, you momma's boy! Who needs an army when you've got _gods_ on your side? Those Key-wielding BRATS won't know what hit them! Hahaha!" The second voice was nasally and obnoxious, his cackle clearly portraying his madness.

"Do keep in mind that _some_ of us are still working to reclaim the power that is rightfully ours." A figure robed in purple chimed in, her voice ringing with a dual nature.

"Well, whose fault was that for trying to rush things, sweetheart? There's a popular saying back on my world; 'good things come to those who wait.'" A fourth voice chuckled, taking a drag of his cigar. "Then again, sometimes you can lose sight of the long term when you've got what you want dangling right in front of you."

"Hmph, you're one to talk. You politicians are all the same, regardless of what world you're from. Always looking to grasp as much power as you can to further your own agenda." The third voice spat. "Part of the reason you humans make me want to-"

"Calm yourself, my dear." A fifth voice added, sweet and silky smooth like honey, but laced with poison. "There is no need to get riled by the words of this low-born rabble." He sneered in the direction of the fourth voice, certain that would raise his ire.

The fourth voice simply laughed as the mountain of a man behind it stood, flicking his cigar right past the sixth voice. "That's adorable, coming from the man who botched a simple fucking assassination job. If my boys had been there, then that blue-haired candy-ass would've been dead faster than you could blink." He paused, a sneer crossing his face. "Instead, you're the dumb fuck who ended up dying." A brief glow could be seen near the man's heart as the six voice rose, dark magic crackling in his hands before a massive weapon slammed upon the ground, drawing everyone's attention to it's owner.

"Enough of this pointless bickering, you fools!" A seventh voice proclaimed in a deep baritone, as it's owner entered the room. "You do the Mistress a disservice with it." He dropped into a one-kneed bow, armored gauntlet held over his heart as he lowered his head almost reverently in the direction of the Mistress of All Evil.

Maleficent smiled at the kneeling figure. "Why, Ser Garland, you took the words right out of my mouth. Truly, you are a gentleman." She swept a glare across the gathered figures, before returning her gaze to the knight. "Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of you joining us?"

The armored figure rose slowly, his massive horned helmet still held low. "My Lady, I bring forth great tidings." Garland paused, gazing at the first voice. "Sephiroth. You say we do not have an army. Allow me to...correct you on that statement." Garland and the others strode towards the edge of the Altar of Naught, gazing down upon the shining horde amassed at the base of the castle, effortlessly slaughtering both the few Nobodies that remained on this world and the few Heartless that Maleficent had left.

"Hey, hey, hey! What's the big idea? Why are these things destroying all our Heartless?!" Pete pointed an accusatory finger at the knight.

"Garland..." Maleficent's voice was trembling with barely contained fury, eager to explode. "What is the meaning of this?"

Garland remained calm under the numerous stares sent his way, ranging from intrigued to judging. "The Heartless are powerful, My Lady. This much is true. However, there is always the risk of one's heart being too weak and the Heartless feasting upon it. A single one of these beings is stronger than a hundred Shadows, and much more durable than them." He chuckled. "It also helps that one does not run the risk of having one's heart devoured by them. They are utterly loyal to us, and _only_ us."

An eighth voice spoke, one that had been silent until now. "These creatures of crystal...do they have a name?"

Garland turned to the eight figure. Garland did not trust this man. True, he clad himself in shadow, but Garland wondered if he had a soft spot in him still. "Indeed they do, Golbez. They are called Manikins. They, along with the Risen, shall be the bulk of our new army."

* * *

**Author's Notes: And there you have it. Maleficent has a new ensemble of bickering villains working with her. Hopefully these ones shall be more competent for her than last time. ****I was actually considering adding Caius Ballad into the mix, but I changed my mind at the last minute. He's already over-powered enough as it is.**

**Feel free to place your bets on who the others are, and who shall end up working with whom!**


	9. Chapter 8 Jamais Vu

**Author's Note: It's time for my first real fight scene! Granted, it's actually pretty short, but it's one that wasn't in the original G.U. games. Let me know how I did on it, and feel free to offer any suggestions! Also, I haven't seen Roots, but I came up with a reason why getting PKed in The World would be such a pain.**

**Oh, and speaking of the original G.U. games, things are going to start going slightly off the rails soon, in terms of G.U. canon.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or the .hack Conglomerate. They are owned by Square Enix and CyberConnect2. I also don't own anything from Metal Gear. That's all owned by the Daedric Prince of Madness, Hideo Kojima. And I don't own anything else that showed up last chapter either. I'm doing this for free, and for your enjoyment, as well as my own.**

* * *

**Δ Peaceful Leading Freedom**

As the light that had briefly blinded them faded, Silabus and Haseo noticed a few things. First, Bordeaux and her compatriots were picking themselves up off the ground. At least, Grein was beginning to pick himself up off the ground; Bordeaux had managed to get back on her feet relatively quickly. The pained grunts and squeals above them drew everyone's attention there, and the jaws of those who were capable of viewing the spectacle before them collectively dropped. A red blur appeared to be bludgeoning Negimaru with two objects, faster than anyone's eyes could follow. With another shriek of pain and a vertical slash from the red _thing_, the PK was sent crashing into the ground, kicking up a plume of dust and pebbles that was half the height of the gargantuan entrance to the Beast Statue chamber. The blur dropped shortly after him, and everyone barely got a glimpse of it before it was already dashing across the ground towards Grein, whose eyes were currently going wide as he brought his massive blade up into a hasty guard.

If someone had told Haseo yesterday that the words "cool" and "Sora" could be used to describe one another unironically, he would have called you an idiot, laughed derisively right to your face, or laughed in your face while calling you an idiot. After today, having seen the sight of Sora-fluffy tail and ears gone and clad in a red and black outfit with a bold, red fleurs-de-lis motif-charging towards a man twice his size with his usual goofy smile replaced with a mask of grim determination, Haseo had to admit to himself; Sora was pretty damn cool. Bordeaux's shocked statement really drove the point home, however.

"_Two_?!" It was then that Haseo noticed that Sora's Kingdom Key was in his right hand, slung over the same shoulder, and he held a new Keyblade in a reversed grip with his left. The second Keyblade-a blue blade with a crescent moon keychain-was already slashing out from where he held it by his right hip at the Edge Punisher into what Haseo was sure would be a three hit combo, followed by Sora activating his Skill Trigger. After all, Sora had explained that, in order to use his Skill Trigger, he first had to land a combo of three or more hits.

He was understandably shocked when Sora only struck Grein once with each Keyblade, knocking him back slightly, then called out the name of a Skill he'd never heard before from him. "Back off! **Omega Finale: Brave Shot**!" Instead of shooting forward, or firing something from his Keyblades, Sora slammed both of his weapons upon the ground, followed shortly by massive geysers of light erupting from the spot Sora had struck, blazing a path forward towards his target. Grein leapt out of the way, seeing that it was a straight path that the giant beams of energy took towards him. The rotund Edge Punisher's grinned as he saw the attack passed his previous location, followed by his eyes shooting open in horror as the pillars looped right back around to his current location, engulfing him in their light.

* * *

Sora finally allowed a small smile to creep onto his face as he saw that the attack had connected with Grein. He was already dashing towards Bordeaux. _I can win!_ She was guarding, but it wouldn't do her much good against both the Kingdom Key and Star Seeker. _I feel great!_ He was within range now, swinging out with the Star Seeker to begin the attack that would finish her off. _I! Can! Do! Thi-_ It was right as Star Seeker's strike was about to connect when, with a dull, muted flash, Star Seeker disappeared and Sora dropped out of Valor Form.

_Oh, you have got to be kidding me! Okay, her eyes are still closed in anticipation of the hit. If I act fast, I can grab Gaspard, Silabus can grab Haseo, and we can...aaaaand she just opened her eyes. Crap. She's got that grin and that crazy look back in her eyes. Double crap. She just revived the other two back to half health with healing items. Triple crap. Everyone here but Silabus and Gaspard are glaring at me…_

Sora voiced the thoughts of his current predicament with two simple words. "Oh, crapbaskets."

* * *

_Ah, hell. We're about to lose half our GP, a good chunk of our experience, and most of our items from getting PKed. Fantastic. _Haseo would have voiced these thoughts, but right now he was in so much goddamn _pain_ that he could barely think straight. It felt like something was about to burst forth from his entire body. He could swear that he could almost hear something calling out to him, from deep within him.

_Wait a minute..._

"_It was such a small seed…"_

_What the-_

"_I had to find out what was growing inside."_

_Something is...Something is...starting to…_

"_That's why...I decided to raise it."_

"_**Thou art I…"**_

_It's...It's growing?!_

That was then that the slow clapping started, and an authoritative voice called out. "Hold it!" Everyone looked to face the newcomers.

* * *

The taller figure was clad in a hooded black cloak. Two silver drawstrings dangling down the zipped up cloak that, were this not a game, would surely be stiflingly hot to wear. The hood was quickly pulled down to reveal a man with long, pointed locks of red hair, three tiny red teardrop marks trailing down his left eye; eyes that were glancing all around the cavern. A grin that could best be described as somewhere between "confidence" and "immature, cocky wit" was plastered on his face. It was when the figure spoke that Haseo figured it was more of the latter and that he had not been the first to speak. "_Boo_."

Then Haseo saw the second figure beside the man, and saw that, yes, it was indeed a woman that had spoken first. His head didn't hurt as much, so he was vaguely aware that Sora and Silabus were openly gawking at the second arrival, and with good reason. For she was _quite_ a woman. The other man didn't seemed as phased as them, but he still seemed to be looking in her general direction.

The burgundy "armor" she wore looked like it would be more fitting in the bedroom than here, flaunting her shapely legs, straps accentuating her exposed stomach, and the tiny burgundy and white top she wore doing nothing to hide her _large_ breasts. Granted, this was an online game, but this was just a bit too ridiculous for Haseo. The fancy gloves and tiny red tie that was practically being swallowed by her ample cleavage just made her look even _more_ ridiculous to the Adept Rogue. To top it all off, she had her bright pink hair braided into two twintails. The pair in front framed the rectangular glasses she wore, bells at the end of them jingling slightly as her glasses reflected the light ominously. The larger pair of braids in the back draped all the back down to her hips. For most boys, she was a wet dream come true.

Haseo, and by default Ryou, was not most boys.

The light from a small hole in the cave ceiling framed her figure, a hand on her hip as she swept her hair to the side. When she spoke, and it may have just been his imagination, there seemed to be a slight undertone of _excitement_ to it-or was it sensuality? Didn't matter to him; he wasn't looking for _those_ sorts of companions online. "Well then, you guys look like...you're having _fun_."

_A hundred yen says she's a sado-masochist. A thousand yen says he's a pervert, _he thought to himself. First impressions were kind of a big deal to Haseo, even online. Right now, neither of these two were getting high marks in his book. It seemed that Bordeaux didn't regard them very highly either, given her tone as she spoke to them.

"Who the hell are you? You wanna be killed too?!" Bordeaux snarled, tapping her sword against her thigh.

The duo didn't seemed phased, strutting forward as if they owned The World. As they came closer, the redheaded man held his hands out to the sides as the very air around him erupted into fire, a pair of red and silver chakrams materializing from the flames that he held in a loose grip. He grinned wildly at the PKs, a spark of something in his eye that Haseo recognized. That Haseo knew all too well. After all, the relatively few PKKs that inhabited The World knew the rush that came from causing the hunters to become the hunted. Most PKKs even relished it.

Haseo absolutely fit in with that particular stereotype. Hell, he practically _defined_ it. Maybe, just maybe, Haseo could get to like this guy.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" The woman, on the other hand, Haseo was rapidly beginning to like less and less. She gave off mixed signals, and that was one of the many things that pissed him off, right up there with "self-centered pricks" and "manipulative bastards". She spoke like she was the leader, but still followed ever so slightly behind the other man. Her hips swung as she walked, but she had a perfectly neutral expression on her face. Not a smirk nor a frown. Just...neutral. He just couldn't get a read on her, and that really bothered him. Of course, when you played The World, one was perfectly within reason to be paranoid, given the nature of how some player killers operated.

"Please say that you want to. Go ahead..." The man's grin grew even more wild as he idly twirled one of his chakrams. "..._give me a reason_."

Bordeaux growled, but gave a questioning look to the woman, who had given the man a brief glare. "The guild that you PKers hate the most…" She adjusted her glasses slightly, fixing Bordeaux with a piercing stare. "...might be heading this way as we speak."

"Moon Tree?!" Bordeaux sounded shocked and angered. "I can't believe it…. You tipped them off, you _bitch_!"

The woman's mouth finally shifted into a smirk. "Maybe I did." It was then that Haseo realized just what it was she was doing, and he had to stop himself from smirking as well. He still didn't like her, but he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Hey! W-What are we gonna do?" Negimaru squeaked frightfully.

"Fighting them now is only gonna bring more problems…." Bordeaux tapped her sword against her thigh a few more times before she sheathed it, jabbing a finger at the duo. "You two! I _won't_ forget this!" The PKers dashed off, heading to the nearby Warp Point to leave the dungeon.

Once they were gone, the woman spoke aloud. "What a silly girl. Doesn't she realize that I just saved her?"

"Eh, probably not. People like her are usually pretty stupid like that." The other shrugged, his chakrams disappearing in a small puff of flame as the two continued walking forward, the man giving Sora a knowing smirk as he passed him. "Isn't that right, Sora?"

Sora laughed, running up and giving the taller man a pat on the back. "You said it, Lea."

Lea almost did a double take before he bent over, laughing heartily. "So, you finally got it memorized, huh?"

"Um...yeah. Thanks a lot for saving us." Silabus bowed at the waist to the woman, who ignored the green-clad Brandier and loomed over Haseo as he got back to his feet.

"You're Haseo?"

"I don't recall telling anyone like you my name," he replied, frowning at the woman. Now that he was back on his own two feet, he saw that, not counting the hair, she was actually a couple inches shorter than him. Lea, on the other hand, was a good half-foot taller than her, without the hair. With the hair, he was a good eight inches taller.

"You're an unruly child, just like I heard you were." The woman crossed her arms under her breasts, most likely trying to intimidate him.

Haseo was unphased. He rolled his eyes at her. "What are you? A groupie?"

The woman smirked as she shook her head. "Nice try, but I'm not interested in _brats_."

Haseo smirked right back at her. "Well I'm glad...because I don't have any interest in _old hags_." The eyes of Sora and Silabus widened, and Lea slammed a gloved hand over his mouth to keep himself from laughing. He didn't do very well.

"_What_?!'_Old hag_?!'" The woman's jaw was slack, and Haseo was pretty sure that her eye was twitching behind her glasses.

"Only an old person like you would use such an outdated phrase like 'unruly child.'" Haseo elaborated, mimicking the woman's tone with the last two words.

Oh, yes. Her eye was definitely twitching behind those glasses. "Damn _brat_!" she growled. "I'll have you know that I'm-"

"Now, now, O-Pi-Sama. Let's keep the lid on _that_ for now." Everyone was now gawking at Lea, followed by them cringing as he suddenly found the woman's fist driving him face-first into the ground.

"How many times must I tell _you_ to stop calling me _that_?" Pi ground out. A few tense moments of silence passed before Pi sighed and began to walk off, leaving Lea on the ground. "I'll come back another time." Haseo idly noted that she had a purple mark upon her right shoulder, one that he hadn't seen on other characters. It was probably just some special event cosmetic.

"As you wish," he shrugged.

"Let me just give you one warning; Haseo..." Pi paused, glancing over her shoulder towards him.

_Oh, great. Here comes the lecture about how I should be more careful, and-_

"...you hide something within you. There is a dangerous power inside you."

_...Okay, wasn't expecting that._

"Dangerous...power?" Sora tilted his head to the side, hand on his chin in thought.

Pi ignored Sora, turning to face Haseo fully once more, but making no move to come back towards him. "Have you ever had the feeling like there was something strange growing inside of you...as if it is trying to get out?" She stared at him. No, not at him; it seemed like she was staring at something inside of him, right by his heart.

_Growing...inside of me?! Like a parasite, or-_ Haseo suddenly heard the same three words he'd heard only a few minutes ago, far off and nearby at the same time. It seemed to be more prominent than last time, though, if only by a little bit.

"_**Thou art I…"**_

There was a part of Haseo that was curious as to who or what could possibly be saying those three words. There was another part of Haseo that was screaming at him, telling him that he should not try to find out. A shiver unconsciously went down his spine, thankfully unnoticed by almost everyone. Pi seemed to notice, but said nothing.

"Well, anyway…" she nodded, turning back around. "I'll see you again." She stepped up to the Warp Point, leaving the dungeon.

Lea had finally picked himself up from the small crater he'd been imprinted into. "I should probably get going too. But before I do…" Lea handed something to Sora. "I believe Bordeaux dropped this when she ran off. She probably picked it up and found she couldn't use it. Probably held onto it, given her, ah, 'unique' interests. I'm sure you'll find a better use for it, though."

Lea then turned to Haseo. "Now, as for you…I kinda wish I could offer you something more than what Miss Bundle Of Sunshine gave ya, but…" Lea suddenly became deadly serious. "She is right. You have a very dangerous power sleeping within your heart, Haseo. It can bring forth the destruction of all that you hold dear…or it could be the salvation of, not just your precious things, but of many other's too. It all depends on the whim of the user."

_The whim of the user? Salvation or destruction? And it's...asleep in my heart? _Lea continued speaking.

"I once told someone this so that someone else could manipulate him, but I hope that this time, these words will be to help you. Our most precious memories lie deep in our hearts, out of reach, as do our most painful ones. If you awaken this power you have in you, then there's a good chance that your memories might return with you."

"My memories? What the hell are you talking about?" Haseo frowned.

"Heh, I never said I'd give you a hint." Lea chuckled humorlessly, before the frown returned to his face. "Be forewarned: when your sleeping power awakens, you may no longer be who you think you are." Before Haseo could question him further, Lea was already walking towards the Warp Point.

Silabus walked over to the downed Gaspard, pulling out a Revival Medicine to resurrect him, pulling him up from where he lay on the ground as he did so. "Phew! Oh man, that was pretty scary," the Shadow Warlock sighed.

"Oh! Can't believe I almost forgot," Lea called out. "Sora! Haseo! Take this!" Lea flung two cards to the two of them. Haseo quirked a brow as he looked at Lea's Member Address; it looked different than the normal ones, bordered by red flame decals. "If you see me online, gimme a holler, and I'll join up when I can!" He grinned, giving them a lazy salute. "Oh, and Haseo? In case you decide to get your old character back, just let me know. I'll put in a good word for ya with my co-workers. Got it memorized?" With the deed done, Lea proceeded to Gate Out.

* * *

Haseo took a few minutes trying to ponder the meaning behind Lea's words, before he came to a startling realization. _Holy crap, I just got saved by two CC Corp Admins...and I probably pissed one of them off. Dammit._

It was around this time that he noticed Silabus waiting for an opportunity to speak. He seemed embarrassed for some reason. "Wow. I...owe you an apology. You were telling the truth the whole time. I'm really, really sorry." Huh? Oh yeah, that thing about him roleplaying. Haseo had practically forgotten about all of that.

"It's fine, really. It all probably sounded pretty crazy anyway." The Adept Rogue rubbed the back of his head. He wasn't quite used to sincere apologies.

Silabus smiled appreciatively. "Okay. So, I didn't really get _all_ of that, but basically, your character has some really messed up data, right?"

Gaspard jumped a little. "Whaaat?! Really?! Well, then...then you should do what Lea said! Go and tell CC Corporation all about it and have them recreate your character for you!"

Silabus nodded. "It's not normal to go from level 133 to level 1 so suddenly."

"Yeah, I know. You're right. It's definitely 'not normal,' but…" Haseo paused, the memory of Tri-Edge appearing in his mind. Should he tell them that? _No. Better to not get them involved unless they want to._ "I guess you could say my enemy's not normal, either."

"Enemy?" Silabus looked a little confused, tilting his head to the side.

"If that 'dangerous power' or whatever they were talking about can help, then…" Haseo clenched his fist, his mind made up. "...then I've got no choice but to keep using this character!"

Silabus hummed. "That sounds pretty serious to me…" Haseo thought he was going to ask more before Silabus simply smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well. Anyway, good luck!"

Haseo breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. _The fewer people involved in this, the better. I've already dragged Sora into this. If something were to happen to anyone else…_

"You know what? Come to think of it..." A light bulb had seemed to come on in Gaspard's head. "...didn't that lady say that she had already called the Moon Tree guild?"

Haseo scoffed a little. "That was just a bluff."

Gaspard seemed a bit confused. "She lied?"

Sora chuckled a little, shaking his head. "No, not a lie exactly. She just never said that she'd actually called them."

Haseo nodded his head, grinning slightly. Sora was definitely smarter than he appeared. "Took the words right out of my mouth, Sora."

You could almost see the gears in Gaspards head turning while Silabus spoke, rather impressed. "A bluff, huh? She's quite the strategist."

"Eugh!" Gaspard was suddenly looking around fearfully.

"What's wrong?" Silabus chuckled.

"What are we doing wasting our time? I mean, what if those player killers come back here?!" Gaspard truly sounded fearful. Had something happened to him with PKers in the past?

"That's a really good point," Sora nodded, looking a bit nervous as well. "I don't think I'll be able to pull something like that again for a while. Let's hurry back to town!"

"Yeah, about that...you're gonna have to tell me just what that was." Haseo gave Sora a look that told him that he wasn't getting away with leaving him in the dark this time.

"I have to admit, that was pretty cool. I mean, I've never seen anything like that before!" Silabus grinned.

* * *

**Δ Server Root Town Eternal City Mac Anu: Back Alley**

"Goddammit! That bitch was bluffing! I should have known." Bordeaux slammed her fist against the nearby wall. Oh, Haseo wasn't going to get off so easy next time.

"C-Calm down, Bordeaux." Negimaru stammered weakly. "B-Besides, didn't you see? They were obviously System Admins. That guy in the black coat looked like he wasn't as tolerant of player killing anyway. Why don't ya take a look at that charm you found the other day? Th-that usually helps calm ya down, right?"

Grein was silently staring at the staircase leading down to their hangout. For a moment, he'd thought he had seen something, like light bending around some odd shape. It must have been a trick of the light, or a little glitch, for it wasn't there anymore. He shook his head, staring back at his two comrades.

"Yeah...Yeah, you're right, Negimaru. Looking at that keychain will help while I think of-" Bordeaux froze, before she let out a furious shriek. "_MOTHERFUCKER_! THEY FUCKING TOOK IT!"

Negimaru looked about ready to bolt. "B-B-Bordeaux?"

The Blade Brandier ignored him. "WHAT IN THE FUCK IS THEIR PROBLEM, STEALING FROM ME LIKE THAT?! WHY WOULD THEY EVEN NEED A-" She stopped mid-rant, as she connected the dots. "That boy. That Sora kid. His weapons… They had keychains on them. He had to be the one that took it. There's no other reason." Oh, she was going to get them good, System Admins be damned! When she got her hands on that little brat, she'd-

"**Greetings, player killers.**" The three turned to further down the dark alley, where a blurry shape was walking towards them. No...it looked almost like it was stalking towards them.

"W-Who's there?! Don't you fuck with me! Show yourself!" Bordeaux had just about had it with people screwing around with her today.

Electricity crackled around it's form as it glowed orange, what seemed to be a prehensile cord wrapping around something on it's back. As the glow outlined it, there was a loud buzz of a chainsaw starting up as the four-legged _thing_ gouged the blade into the ground beneath it, sparks and detritus flying up as it did so.

The intellect contained within it's form gazed at the three, seemingly reading their expressions. The green-haired one looked ready to faint. The fat one's brow was furrowed in it's direction. The female looked intrigued. In truth, it was discreetly hacking into their their accounts, gathering as much information as it could to use as potential leverage.

Chance Further Intimidation Tactics Needed: **25%**

Most Probable Scenario: Subjects [Bordeaux] and [Grein] engage in combat while Subject [Negimaru] flees

Threat Level of Subjects [Bordeaux] and [Grein]: **Negligible**

Chances of Defeat: **0.000001%**

Bordeaux narrowed her eyes at the being that stood before her, lowering her weapon slightly. "And just what the hell are you?"

Reassessment

Most Probable Scenario: Subject [Bordeaux] expresses interest in potential for Assassination of Subject [Sora]

Chances of Successful Partnership: **89%**

Chances of Completing Mission Directive: **99.99%**

The creature set the chainsaw blade upon it's back as it deactivated it's active camouflage, revealing a rather impressive-looking form of metal alloys and CNT fibers, true to it's canine shape in the real world. A light below it's red visor flashed as it introduced itself to the three, the metal of it's body groaning slightly as it dug it's claws into the ground. "**LQ-84i. A prototype UG with a conversational interface. I believe we may be able to reach a...mutually beneficial agreement.**"

* * *

**Author's Note: And now I've added Bladewolf into the mix of things. If any of you properly guessed who one of Maleficent's new allies was, you would have probably seen this coming.**

**For those of you who have no idea who this is, go play Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. It's really short, so some of you may just want to rent it. But this game...just...this freaking game, son.**

**Anyway, Read, Review, and Recommend if you like it!**


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